Esse quam videri is a Latin phrase meaning "To be, rather than to seem to be." It has been used as motto by a number of different groups.
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Esse quam videri is found in Cicero's essay "On Friendship" ("De amicitia", chapter 98). "Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt" (Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so).
Just a few years after Cicero, Sallust used the phrase in his Bellum Catilinae (54.6), writing that Cato the Younger "esse quam videri bonus malebat" (He preferred to be good rather than to seem so).
Previous to both Romans, Aeschylus used a similar phrase in Seven Against Thebes at line 592, at which the scout (angelos) says of the seer/priest Amphiaraos: "ou gar dokein aristos, all' enai thelei" (his resolve is not to seem the best but in fact to be the best). Plato quoted this line in Republic (361b).
In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli twists this phrase to Videri Quam Esse (To seem rather than to be) with respect to how a ruler ought to act.
Esse quam videri is the state motto of North Carolina, adopted in 1893.
It is unusual that, until the act of 1893, the state of North Carolina had no motto since its declaration of independence. It was one of the few states that did not have a motto, and the only one of the original thirteen without one.
The state motto had also been adopted as a temporary motto by the Virginia class submarine USS North Carolina until being replaced by primus in proelio, which means First in Fight, a play-on-words for First in Flight.
Esse quam videri is (or was) the motto of a number of schools around the world including:
"Esse Quam Videri" is also the motto of the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority [6], founded in 1917 at New York University Law School.
"Esse Quam Videri" is also the motto of the Lambda Kappa Sigma sorority [7], founded in 1913 at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
"Esse Quam Videri" is also the motto of the House of Susan B. Anthony [8], founded exclusively at The King's College in the Empire State Building.
Phi Lambda Sigma, Lebanon Valley College, est. 1867.
Alpha Pi Alpha, SUNY Albany, 1952 through 1987
Kingswood Rugby Football Club, Bristol, UK, use a variant of the motto, "Esse Non Videri" as their club motto. [9]
Esse quam videri is the motto used on the coats of arms of the following families: Acraman, Adams, Bakewell, Barnard, Bourne, Bowen, Breamore, Brownlee, Brownlow, Cambria, Clavering, Coutts, Crawley, Croft, Dickinson, Harmer, Halliday, Hannum, Hood, Isserman, Ivey, Longley, McManners, Manning, Renshaw, Round (Essex County), Shreeve, Sherriff, Sibley, Sturges, Thurston, Turner, Tyler, Walmsley, Womack and Woodgate.
It was also the motto used within the Brockman coat of arms circa 1700.
Television personality Stephen Colbert inverses this statement on his show The Colbert Report to be Videri Quam Esse[7], in reference to his belief in truthiness.
Esse quam videri is a Latin phrase meaning "To be, rather than to seem to be." It has been used as motto by a number of different groups.
Contents |
Esse quam videri is found in Cicero's essay "On Friendship" ("De amicitia", chapter 98). "Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt" (Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so).
Just a few years after Cicero, Sallust used the phrase in his Bellum Catilinae (54.6), writing that Cato the Younger "esse quam videri bonus malebat" (He preferred to be good rather than to seem so).
Previous to both Romans, Aeschylus used a similar phrase in Seven Against Thebes at line 592, at which the scout (angelos) says of the seer/priest Amphiaraos: "ou gar dokein aristos, all' einai thelei" (his resolve is not to seem the best but in fact to be the best). Plato quoted this line in Republic (361b).
In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli reverses this phrase to Videri Quam Esse (To seem rather than to be) with respect to how a ruler ought to act.
Esse quam videri is the state motto of North Carolina, adopted in 1893.
It is unusual that, until the act of 1893, the state of North Carolina had no motto since its declaration of independence. It was one of the few states that did not have a motto, and the only one of the original thirteen without one.
The state motto had also been adopted as a temporary motto by the Virginia class submarine USS North Carolina until being replaced by primus in proelio, which means First in Fight, a play-on-words for First in Flight.
Esse quam videri is (or was) the motto of a number of schools around the world including: St. George School in Havana, Cuba
"Esse Quam Videri" is also the motto of the
Kingswood Rugby Football Club, Bristol, UK, use a variant of the motto, "Esse Non Videri" as their club motto. [9]
Esse quam videri is the motto used on the coats of arms of the following families: Acraman, Adams, Bakewell, Barnard, Bourne, Bowen, Breamore, Brownlee, Brownlow, Cady, Cambria, Roy Clarke, Clavering, Coutts, Crawley, Creer, Croft, Dickinson, Harmer, Halliday, Hamill, Hannum, Hood, Isserman, Ivey, Longley, McManners, Manning, Pridgen, Renshaw, Round (Essex County), Seward, Shreeve, Sherriff, Sibley, Sturges, Swire, Thurston, Turner, Tyler, Walmsley, Womack and Woodgate.
It was also the motto used within the Brockman coat of arms circa 1700.
Television personality Stephen Colbert inverts this statement on his show The Colbert Report to be Videri Quam Esse,[8] meaning "to seem to be rather than to be" in reference to his TV personality as seemingly being a serious, right-wing pundit. It is also engraved above the digital fireplace in his studio, under his portrait.
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