Scientia potentia est is perhaps better translated as "knowledge is His power", because the context of the sentence refers to the qualities of God and is imbedded in a discussion of heresies that deny the power of God: "statuuntque latiores terminos scientiae Dei quam potestatis, vel potius ejus partis potestatis Dei (nam et ipsa scientia potestas est) qua scit, quam ejus qua movet et agit: ut praesciat quaedam otiose, quae non praedestinet et praeordinet". The English translation of this section includes the following: Interpretation of the notion of power meant by Bacon must therefore take into account his distinction between the power of
Alea iacta est "a point of no return"; for example: Alea iacta est Caesar was said to have borrowed the phrase from Menander, his favourite Greek writer of comedy; the phrase appears in "Ἀρρηφόρος" (transliterated as "Arrephoros") (or possibly "The Flute-Girl"), as quoted in "Deipnosophistae" , paragraph 8. Plutarch reports that these words were said in Greek: Suetonius, a contemporary of Plutarch writing in Latin, reports a similar phrase. Lewis and Short, citing Casaubon and Ruhnk, suggest that the text of Suetonius should read "iacta alea esto" (reading the imperative "esto" instead of "est"), which they translate as "Let the die be cast!",