Esse quam videri

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.

"Esse Quam Videri" plaque on monument to Revolutionary War officer Joseph Winston, Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Greensboro, North Carolina

History

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.

Usage as a motto

North Carolina

Great Seal of North Carolina with the state motto esse quam videri.

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.

Schools

Esse quam videri is (or was) the motto of a number of schools around the world including:

• Academy at the Lakes, Land O Lakes, Florida
• Academy of the Holy Names Tampa, Florida
• Accra Academy High School Accra, Ghana
• Albert Academy Freetown, Sierra Leone
• Amarillo High School Amarillo, Texas
• S. Anselm's Preparatory School Bakewell, England
• Appalachian State University (1899) Boone, North Carolina, USA
• Ashford School (1899) Ashford, Kent, England
• Ashville College (1877) Harrogate, England
• Augusta Preparatory Day School (1972) Augusta, Georgia, USA
• Beaconsfield Primary School (1883) Tasmania, Australia
• Ben Franklin Academy (1987) Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Bennett, Instituto Metodista, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Berklee College of Music Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Boys' Latin School of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
• Brigham Young University Men's Chorus, Provo, Utah, USA
• Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
• University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK, USA
• Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
• Central Technology College,Gloucester England.
• Clifton House Preparatory School Harrogate, England
• The Colleton Primary School, Twyford, Berkshire, UK.
• Colyton Grammar School (1546) Colyford, England
• Columbia College Chicago (1890) Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Connells Point Public School, Sydney, Australia.
• Cranbrook School Sydney (1918), Sydney, Australia.
• Desert Heights Prepatory Academy, Glendale, Arizona
• Darwin High School, Darwin, Australia.
• Dubbo High School, Australia
• Ellis Robins High School, Harare, Zimbabwe
• Esquimalt High School, Esquimalt, BC, Canada
• The Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA
• The Forest School Winnersh, Wokingham, Berkshire, UK
• Friarwood Ltd, London, England
• Garrison Forest School for Girls (1910) Owings Mills, Maryland, USA
• St. George School, Havana, Cuba
• Groton School (1884), Groton, Massachusetts, USA. The motto changed to "Cui Servire est Regnare" shortly after the school's founding.
• The Hermitage School (1906), Geelong, Australia which has subsequently become that of The Hermitage House, Geelong Grammar School.
• Hampden DuBose Academy, Zellwood, Florida, USA
• Hartford Public High School, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
• Highsted Grammar School, Sittingbourne, Kent, England
• Homewood School, Tenterden, Kent, England
• Hudson Catholic High School, Hudson, Massachusetts
• The Hemel Hempstead School, (1931), Hemel Hempstead, England.
• The Ellis School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
• Instituto Metodista Bennett (1888) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• JMA Armstrong High School, Salisbury, New Brunswick, Canada
• The King's College, NY (House of Susan B. Anthony)
• KIPP Houston High School, Houston, Texas, USA
• Kingsfield Grammar School, Kingswood, Bristol, UK in the form 'Esse non videri'
• Kingsley School, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England
• Kutama College Norton, Zimbabwe
• Leicester High School(1962)The last graduating class before changing to Leicester Elementary School, Leicester, NC, USA.
• Littlemead (Grammar) School, Oving, Chichester, Sussex, England. School dated from mid 60s in Chichester, then moved to Oving in 1974 and finally closed in the mid/late '90s due to retirement of Ivan Bowler
• Magee Secondary School, Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Miami Coral Park Senior High School, Miami, Florida, USA
• Moravian Academy Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA current motto is "mind, body, spirit",
• The Mount School, Mill Hill. London, United Kingdom.
• National University of Health Sciences, Lombard, IL (previously National Chiropractic College)
• New Orleans Academy, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
• North Adelaide Primary School, (1877), Adelaide, Australia
• Peace College, (1857), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
• Queen's College, Queenstown, South Africa
• Rhodesway School, (1958), Bradford, UK
• Rockridge Secondary School, West Vancouver, B.C., Canada
• Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK
• Salisbury School, Salisbury, Connecticut, USAUK
• Scott Park Secondary School (1967) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• Selaiyur Hall, Madras Christian College, Chennai, India
• Seton Hall High School in Patchogue, New York, United States
• Southampton Grammar School for Girls Southampton, UK
• St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, New York, United States.
• St. Malachy's Memorial High School in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
• St. Peters School in Mazagaon Mumbai, India
• St Thomas à Becket Catholic College in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
• Streetsville Secondary School, Streetsville, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
• Suffield Academy in Suffield, Connecticut, USA.
• The Taieri High School, Mosgiel, Otago, NZ
• Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy (1999–Present), Rutherford County, NC.
• Trevecca Nazarene University, Nashville, TN
• Truro School, (1880–Present), Truro, Cornwall, UK
• Boys' Latin School of Maryland (1844), Baltimore, Maryland, USA
• University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida
• Villa Devoto School, (1908) Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Wavell State High School Brisbane, Australia
• St Audries School, West Quantoxhead, Taunton, Somerset, England (since closed and now a hotel)
• Wyomissing Area School District, Wyomissing, PA, USA
• Yeovil School, Yeovil, Somerset, UK
• St. Clare's College, Colombo 6, Sri Lanka

Sororities

"Esse Quam Videri" is also the motto of the

• Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, founded in 1917 at New York University Law School.
• Lambda Kappa Sigma sorority, founded in 1913 at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
• House of Susan B. Anthon, founded exclusively at The King's College in the Empire State Building.
• Shirreff Hall residence at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• Alpha Chi Lambda at Trinity University.
• Phi Delta Alpha, founded in 2002 at University of Oklahoma

Fraternities

• Phi Lambda Sigma, Lebanon Valley College, est. 1867.
• Alpha Pi Alpha, SUNY Albany, 1952 through 1987.
• Epsilon Kappa Delta, Florida Institute of Technology, 1968 through 1972.
• Archons, Kenyon College

Sporting Organisations

Kingswood Rugby Football Club, Bristol, UK, use a variant of the motto, "Esse Non Videri" as their club motto.

Companies

• A computer and management training company, who are based in Leicestershire, UK.
• The phrase is found on the Sibley Mill along the Augusta Canal in Augusta, Georgia. The structure was completed in 1882 and operated until 2006.

Families

Esse quam videri is the motto used on the coats of arms of the following families: Acraman, Adams, Bakewell, Barnard, Beadon, Bostock, Bourne, Bowen,Bowne, Breamore, Brownlee, Brownlow, Cady, Cambria, Roy Clarke, Clavering, Cook, Coutts, Crawley, Creer, Croft, Dickinson, Downes, Frank, Harmer, Halliday, Hamill (O'hAdhmaill), Hannum, Hood, Houk, Isserman, Ivey, Longley, McManners, Manning, Panon-Desbassayns de Richemont,Proud, Partridge family coat of arms, see A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the landed gentry of England..., Volume 2 By Sir Bernard Burke, Pickard-Cambridge, Pridgen, Renshaw, Reynes, Round (Essex County), Seward, Shreeve, Sherriff, Sibley, Sturges, Swire, Thurston, Thruston, Turner, Tyler, Walmsley, Womack and Woodgate.^{[citation needed]}

It was also the motto used within the Brockman coat of arms circa 1700.

Other Organizations

Esse quam videri is the motto of the hat society The Order of Scroll and Key at Dickinson College

It is also the motto of The National Honor & Merit Scholars Society

The Motto is part of the family coat of arms of Sir William Hooker Lord mayor of London in the 1600 hundreds mentioned by Samual Pepys in his diareys also the English Kent Hookers on memorials in Brenchley Church Kent

It is also the motto of the Carolina Wilderness EMS Externship, a wilderness EMS training program based in western North Carolina.

Popular culture

Television personality Stephen Colbert inverts this statement on his show The Colbert Report to be Videri Quam Esse, 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.

The phrase was also used on stationary as the slogan of notorious imposter Ferdinand Waldo Demara.