potuit

Augustine had already criticized the application of the statistical model of possibility to divine power; for him, God has freely chosen the actual world and its providential plan from alternatives which he could have realized but did not will to do (potuit sed noluit).

Medieval Theories of Modality Knuuttila, Simo 2008

Its portrayal of wretched insanity is implicitly contradicted by Lucretius 'younger contemporary and admirer Virgil, who felt able to write of him in his Georgics, a didactic poem heavily in Lucretius' debt, the celebrated lines (2. 490-2) ˜Happy he who was able to know the causes of things (felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas), and who trampled beneath his feet all fears, inexorable fate, and the roar of devouring hell™.

Lucretius Sedley, David 2008

Stant igitur partes attonitae, tanquam non ad conflictum progressuri, ob defectum evasi: noluit enim pars integrum habens numerum sociorum consentire, ut unus de suis demeretur; nec potuit pars altera quocumque pretio alterum ad supplendum vicem fugientis inducere.

The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

“He can (potest) do it” is appropriate for speaking of the eternal God; from our temporal point of view, “He could have (potuit) done it” is the appropriate way of expressing it (619A-C).

Peter Damian Holopainen, Toivo J. 2008

Ad ejus decessum nunquam visa Lucretia ridere, nullis facetiis, jocis, nullo gaudio potuit ad laetitiam renovari, mox in aegritudinem incidit, et sic brevi contabuit.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Prisco suo; Dedit mihi quantum potuit maximum, daturas amplius si potuisset.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Chrysostom; the king of Nineveh's sackcloth and ashes did that which his purple robes and crown could not effect; Quod diadema non potuit, cinis perfecit.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Caelebs enim vixerat nec ad uxorem ducendam unquam induci potuit.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Cato Censorius, that upright Cato of whom Paterculus gives that honourable eulogium, bene fecit quod aliter facere non potuit, was [4014] fifty times indicted and accused by his fellow citizens, and as [4015] Ammianus well hath it, Quis erit innocens si clam vel palam accusasse sufficiat? if it be sufficient to accuse a man openly or in private, who shall be free?

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Nobilis senex Alsatus juvenem uxorem duxit, at ille colico dolore, et multis morbis correptus, non potuit praestare officium mariti, vix inito matrimonio aegrotus.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007