Mater dicit nihil iucundius esse quam novas urbes videre et ab hominibus doctis benigne accipi.

It has two main layers:

• Mater dicit = the main statement
• nihil iucundius esse quam novas urbes videre et ab hominibus doctis benigne accipi = what Mother says

That second part is an indirect statement, a very common Latin construction after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, perceiving, and so on.

A rough structural breakdown is:

• nihil = the subject of the indirect statement
• iucundius = predicate adjective with esse
• esse = infinitive verb used in indirect statement
• quam ... videre ... accipi = the comparison after more pleasant than ...

So Latin is literally doing something like:

• Mother says
• nothing to be more pleasant than seeing new cities and being kindly received by learned people

Natural English then reshapes that into ordinary English style.

Because Latin usually expresses reported statements with the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

After dicit, instead of saying the equivalent of that nothing is more pleasant, Latin says:

• nihil iucundius esse

So:

• dicit = says
• esse = to be, but in this construction it corresponds to English is

This is one of the most important sentence patterns in Latin.

In function, it is the subject of the infinitive esse, so in an indirect statement it should be accusative.

But nihil is one of those words whose nominative and accusative look the same, so the form does not change.

That means:

• grammatically in the construction, it behaves like an accusative subject
• visually, it looks identical to the nominative form

This often confuses learners at first, but it is perfectly normal.

Because iucundius agrees with nihil, which is neuter singular.

The comparative adjective has these forms:

• masculine/feminine singular: iucundior
• neuter singular: iucundius

Since nihil is neuter, Latin uses:

• nihil iucundius = nothing more pleasant

So iucundius is just the correct neuter singular comparative form.

Because Latin, like English, often uses a comparative with a negative word to express an idea that feels almost superlative.

So:

• nihil iucundius literally = nothing more pleasant
• idiomatically = nothing is more pleasant

This is not strange Latin; it is a very normal way to say that something is the most pleasant thing imaginable.

Iucundius is a comparative, so it needs a standard of comparison:

• more pleasant than what?

That is what quam introduces.

Here the comparison is not just with a single noun, but with an entire verbal idea:

• novas urbes videre et ab hominibus doctis benigne accipi

So quam is the natural way to introduce that full comparison.

Latin sometimes uses the ablative of comparison instead of quam, but that works best with simpler noun comparisons. Here quam is the clearer and more normal choice.

Because after quam, Latin is comparing activities or experiences, and infinitives can express those very neatly.

So:

• videre = to see
• accipi = to be received

Together they function almost like verbal nouns:

• seeing new cities and being kindly received by learned people

This is why the sentence can compare nothing more pleasant with those experiences.

Because urbes is the direct object of videre.

• videre = to see
• what do you see? novas urbes

So:

• urbes = accusative plural of urbs
• novas agrees with urbes in gender, number, and case

That gives:

• novas urbes = new cities as the object of seeing

Because the sentence means to be received, not to receive.

• accipere = active infinitive, to receive
• accipi = passive infinitive, to be received

That matters a lot here:

• ab hominibus doctis tells you who is doing the action
• therefore the infinitive must be passive

So the idea is:

• to be kindly received by learned people

not

• to receive learned people kindly

It gives the personal agent with the passive infinitive accipi.

In Latin, when a passive verb has a person or people doing the action, Latin normally uses:

• ab
  • ablative

So here:

• ab hominibus doctis = by learned people

More specifically:

• hominibus is ablative plural after ab
• doctis agrees with hominibus
• doctis means learned or educated

So hominibus doctis is one phrase: learned people.

Benigne is an adverb, and it modifies accipi.

So:

• accipi = to be received
• benigne accipi = to be kindly received

A learner should notice that benigne does not describe hominibus directly. It describes how the receiving is done.

Yes. The subject is not stated explicitly, because it is left general or understood.

English does the same thing with infinitives:

• to see new cities
• to be kindly received

We do not have to say exactly who is doing or experiencing those actions.

In context, the sense is something like:

• for a person
• for one
• for a traveler
• sometimes loosely for you/us

The important point is that the same understood subject goes with both infinitives:

• to see
• and to be received

Because of agreement.

• doctis is ablative plural
• hominibus is also ablative plural
• urbes is accusative plural

Since adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in case, number, and gender, doctis can only go with hominibus, not with urbes.

So the phrase must be:

• ab hominibus doctis = by learned people

not anything involving urbes.