Katana VentraIP

Esse quam videri

Esse quam videri is a Latin phrase meaning "To be, rather than to seem." It has been used as a motto by a number of different groups.

History[edit]

Esse quam videri is found in Cicero's essay On Friendship (Laelius 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 Amphiaraus: οὐ γὰρ δοκεῖν ἄριστος, ἀλλ᾽ εἶναι θέλει (ou gàr dokeîn áristos, all' eînai thélei: "he doesn't want to seem, but to be the bravest"). Plato quoted this line in Republic (361b).

Santiago, Chile

Academia de Guerra del Ejército de Chile

Tampa, Florida

Academy of the Holy Names

Albany, New York

Academy of the Holy Names

Land O Lakes, Florida

Academy at the Lakes

Accra, Ghana

Accra Academy

Freetown, Sierra Leone

Albert Academy

Amarillo, Texas

Amarillo High School

Ashford, Kent, UK

Ashford School

Bakewell, England

St Anselm's School

St Audries School, East Quantoxhead, Somerset, England

(1899), Boone, North Carolina

Appalachian State University

(1899), Ashford, Kent, England

Ashford School

(1877), Harrogate, England

Ashville College

(1972), Augusta, Georgia, US

Augusta Preparatory Day School

until c.1990, when Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges merged and it became the motto of the joint college

Bedford College, University of London

Boston, Massachusetts, US and Valencia, Spain

Berklee College of Music

(1881-1973), Bordentown, NJ, US

Bordentown Military Institute

(1844), Baltimore, Maryland, US

Boys' Latin School of Maryland

Provo, Utah, US

Brigham Young University Men's Chorus

Newton, North Carolina, US[3]

Catawba County Sheriff's Office

Thika, Kenya

Chania High School

Harrogate, England

Clifton House Preparatory School

(1546), Colyford, England

Colyton Grammar School

(1890), Chicago, Illinois, US

Columbia College Chicago

Sydney, Australia[4]

Connells Point Public School

(1918), Sydney, Australia

Cranbrook School, Sydney

Darwin, Australia[5]

Darwin High School

Glendale, Arizona[6]

Desert Heights Preparatory Academy

(now Dubbo College)[7]

Dubbo High School

Harare, Zimbabwe

Ellis Robins High School

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US

The Ellis School

Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, US

The Episcopal Academy

,[8] Esquimalt, British Columbia

Esquimalt High School

Winnersh, Wokingham, Berkshire, England

The Forest School

Owings Mills, Maryland, US

Garrison Forest School

(1884), Groton, Massachusetts, US. The motto changed to Cui Servire est Regnare ("To whom to serve is to reign") shortly after the school's founding.

Groton School

Hartford, Connecticut, US

Hartford Public High School

(1931), Hemel Hempstead, England.[9]

The Hemel Hempstead School

(1906), Geelong, Australia; which has subsequently become that of The Hermitage House, Geelong Grammar School.

The Hermitage School

Sittingbourne, Kent, England

Highsted Grammar School

Tenterden, Kent, England

Homewood School

Hudson, Massachusetts

Hudson Catholic High School

(1888), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[10]

Instituto Metodista Bennett

Salisbury, New Brunswick, Canada

JMA Armstrong High School

Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada

John Caldwell School

New York (House of Susan B. Anthony)

The King's College

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England

Kingsley School

Norton, Zimbabwe

Kutama College

Jackson, Tennessee, US[11]

Lane College

Vancouver, British Columbia

Magee Secondary School

Miami, Florida, US

Miami Coral Park Senior High School

Jamaica

Montego Bay High School for Girls

Montreat, North Carolina

Montreat College

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; current motto is "mind, body, spirit",

Moravian Academy

Mountlake Terrace, Washington

Mountlake Terrace High School

(previously National Chiropractic College), Lombard, Illinois[12]

National University of Health Sciences

(1857), Raleigh, North Carolina, US

Peace College

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Providence Christian Academy

Queenstown, South Africa

Queen's College

England

Regent's University London

(1958), Bradford, UK

Rhodesway School

West Vancouver, British Columbia

Rockridge Secondary School

Egham, Surrey, England

Royal Holloway, University of London

Saintbridge School for Boys, Gloucester, England

Salisbury, Connecticut, US

Salisbury School

Selaiyur Hall, , Chennai, India

Madras Christian College

Patchogue, New York, United States[13]

Seton Hall High School

[14] Southampton, UK

Southampton Grammar School for Girls

West Quantoxhead, Taunton, Somerset, England (since closed and now a hotel)

St Audries School

(1914), Norton, Zimbabwe

St Francis Xaviers Kutama College

Wakefield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

St Thomas à Becket Catholic Secondary School

in Patchogue, New York, United States.

St. Joseph's College

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.[15]

St. Malachy's Memorial High School

Mazgaon, Mumbai, India

St. Peter's School

South Bend, Indiana, US

Stanley Clark School

Streetsville, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Streetsville Secondary School

Suffield, Connecticut, US

Suffield Academy

Mosgiel, Otago, New Zealand

The Taieri High School

(1999–present), Rutherford County, North Carolina[16]

Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy

Nashville, Tennessee

Trevecca Nazarene University

[17] (1880–present), Truro, Cornwall, England

Truro School

(1946), Charlotte, North Carolina, US

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Tampa, Florida

University of Tampa

[18] (1908), Buenos Aires, Argentina

Villa Devoto School

Brisbane, Australia

Wavell State High School

(formerly Woodward High School),[19] Cincinnati, Ohio, US

Woodward Career Technical High School

,[20] Wyomissing, Pennsylvania

Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School

,[21] Yeovil, Somerset, England

Yeovil School

Hull, England.

Froebel House Preparatory School

External links[edit]

Media related to Esse quam videri at Wikimedia Commons