De mortuis nil nisi bonum

The Latin phrases De mortuis nihil nisi bonum ("Of the dead, nothing unless good") and De mortuis nil nisi bene [dicendum] ("Of the dead, nothing [spoken] unless well (truthfully)") indicate that it is socially inappropriate to speak ill of the dead. As a mortuary aphorism, De mortuis. . . . derives from the Latin sentence De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est ("Of the dead nothing but good is to be said"), which also is abbreviated as Nil nisi bonum. Freer translations into English are often used as aphorisms, these include: "Speak no ill of the dead", "Of the dead, speak no evil", and "Do not speak ill of the dead".