Hi! Welcome to “Dusty Phrases.” You will find below an ancient phrase in one language or another, along with its English translation. You may also find the power to inspire your friends or provoke dread among your enemies.
For other examples, visit HERE:
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Latin:
Per aspera ad astra.
English:
Through adversity to the stars.
You may have heard of this one before. It’s widely used, globally, both in government organizations and in culture. The following is undoubtedly overkill, but I wanted to share a bit of just how widely used this phrase really is, so here is a list compiled by Wiki:
Governmental entities
- Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- State of Kansas (Ad astra per aspera)
- Municipality of Cheribon, Netherlands East Indies
- City of Gouda, The Netherlands
- Honored Scientist of Armenia
Military and government
- Department of Civil Aviation, Thailand
- Military Technical Academy in Bucharest, Romania
- National Defence Academy of Latvia
- South African Air Force
- Spanish Air Force
- Hon. Julie Payette, 29th Governor General of Canada[
- Royal Life Guards (Denmark)
- Royal Australian Air Force (per Ardua ad Astra)
- House Order of the Wendish Crown
- Crew 2020, Federal German Naval Officers Academy
Educational and research institutions
Australia
- Queenwood School for Girls, Mosman NSW
- Woodville High School, Adelaide
- Albury High School, Albury, New South Wales
- Girton Grammar School, Bendigo, Victoria
Austria
Azerbaijan[edit]
Botswana
Ecuador
- Instituto Nacional Mejía, Quito, Ecuador
Estonia
Honduras
- Escuela Nacional de Música, Tegucigalpa
- Instituto Salesiano San Miguel, Tegucigalpa
India
- Clarence High School, Bangalore, Karnataka, India – Motto of Redwood House (Ad Astra)
- St. Augustine’s High School, kalimpong, District:Darjeeling, India
- The Frank Anthony Public School,Kolkata,India
- The Frank Anthony Public School, Delhi, India – Motto of Ranger House
- St Joseph’s High School, Dharwad, Karnataka, India
- Antonio D’souza High School, Mumbai, India
- Technology Research and Incubation Centre, Dimapur, Nagaland
Jamaica
- Immaculate Conception High School, St. Andrew
- Mount Alvernia High School, Montego Bay
Japan
- St. Francis Church, Tokyo, West-Hachioji, Gnosis Essene (HP)
Macau
- Postgraduate Association of University of Macau, Macau
Maldives
- MNDF Fire and Rescue Services Training School, K.Viligili
New Zealand
Nigeria
- Ilupeju College, Ilupeju, Lagos
- Lagos Secondary Commercial Academy, LASCA
- Kalabari National College, Buguma, Rivers State
- Oriwu Model College, Igbogbo, Ikorodu
- Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi state.
Norway
- Stavanger Cathedral School, Stavanger
- Sortland videregående skole, Nordland
- Lillehammer videregående skole
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Pakistan
- St Patrick’s High School, Karachi
- St. Patrick’s College, Karachi
Paraguay
Philippines
- Far Eastern University – Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation, Quezon City
- St. John Paul II College of Davao, Davao City
- Rosevale School, Cagayan de Oro City
- Juan R. Liwag Memorial High School, Gapan City
- Cagayan State University, Tuguegarao City
Portugal
- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Astronautics student’s association (SAC) – Coimbra (Academic association of Coimbra)
Romania
- Colegiul Național “Horea, Cloșca și Crișan” Alba Iulia
- Mihai Eminescu High School, Suceava
- Colegiul National “Andrei Saguna” Brașov
- Colegiul Național “Doamna Stanca” Făgăraș
- Alexandru Papiu Ilarian High School, Târgu Mureș
- Andrei Mureşanu High School, Bistrița
- Márton Áron Főgimnázium [ro], Csíkszereda (Liceul Teoretic “Márton Áron”, Miercurea-Ciuc)
- Ovidius High School, Constanța
- Military Technical Academy, Bucharest
Russia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Slovakia
- Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
- Slovak Organisation for Space Activities
Slovenia
- Prva gimnazija Maribor, Maribor
- Gimnazija Jesenice, Jesenice
- Gimnazija Škofja Loka, Škofja Loka
South Africa
- Pietersburg Hoërskool
- Tembisa Secondary School
- South African Air Force
- Ribane-Laka Secondary School
- Chistlehurst Academics and Arts School
Sri Lanka
- St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Milagiriya, Colombo District, Western Province
Sweden
Tajikistan
- Gymnasium #1 after V. Chkalov, Buston, Khujand, Sugd region
Ukraine
- Space Museum dedicated to Korolyov in Zhytomyr
- Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
- Bucha Ukrainian gymnasium
United Kingdom
- The Royal School, Haslemere, Surrey
- Colfe’s School, Greenwich, London
- Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend, Kent
- Dr. Challoner’s Grammar School, Amersham, Buckinghamshire
United States
- California State University East Bay, Hayward, California
- Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina
- Cornelia Strong College, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina
- Coventry High School, Coventry, Rhode Island
- East Hampton High School, East Hampton, Connecticut
- Greenhill School, Dallas, Texas
- Irvington Union Free School District, Irvington, New York
- Saint Joseph Academy, Brownsville, Texas
- Lake View High School, Chicago, Illinois
- Lyndon Institute, Lyndon Center, Vermont
- Macopin Middle School, West Milford, New Jersey
- Miami Central High School, Miami, Florida
- Midwood High School, Brooklyn, New York
- Mirman School, Los Angeles, California
- Morristown-Beard School, Morristown, New Jersey
- Mount Saint Michael Academy, Bronx, New York
- Satellite High School, Satellite Beach, Florida
- Seven Lakes High School, Katy, Texas
- Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey
- Trinity Prep, Winter Park, Florida
- Townsend Harris High School, Queens, New York
- University High School, Fresno, California
- University of Tennessee Space Institute, Tullahoma, Tennessee
- Oak Harbor Academy Private School, Lemoore, California
Popular culture
- Appears on the hull of the ship ‘Searcher’ in the second season of Buck Rogers.
- Garrison Keillor routinely references the phrase as the only Latin phrase he cared to remember on A Prairie Home Companion.
- Per Aspera Ad Astra is a Soviet Russian science fiction film by Richard Viktorov, written by Kir Bulychov.
- Rip Torn says this phrase to David Bowie in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth.
- Tomo Milicevic of the band 30 Seconds to Mars has a tattoo on his right forearm reading ‘per aspera et astra’, with the band’s logo in the background in red.
- Aspera! Per aspera! Per ardua! Ad astra! is the refrain of the song “Aspera” by Erin McKeown on the album We Will Become Like Birds.
- American singer, rapper, dancer, actress, and songwriter Kiely Williams has “Per aspera ad astra” tattooed on her right forearm.
- Title of a play depicting the history of the fictional Maycomb County in To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the translation is given as from the mud to the stars.
- Title of a song by Haggard, from the album Eppur Si Muove.
- The name of an album by Abandon Kansas.
- It is one of many hidden messages in the 2009 video game The Conduit.
- Motto of the Martian Imperial Commandos in Kurt Vonnegut novel, The Sirens of Titan.
- Title of a song by Seattle-based band Acceptance.
- Title of a song by Goasia, appearing on the album From Other Spaces (Suntrip Records, 2007)
- Appears on right side shoulder patch in Star Trek Enterprise, on the “newer” uniform style shown on the series finale. In Star Trek The Next Generation it is shown to be the motto of Starfleet.
- The official motto of Solforce in the videogame Sword of the Stars.
- The phrase is used as the name of the tenth track on the score for the film Underworld: Rise of the Lycans by Paul Haslinger.
- Title of a song by the band Spiritual Beggars from their album Ad Astra.
- Title of a song by the band Die Apokalyptischen Reiter from their album Samurai.
- The final mission (Chapter 15) in the Mafia II video game.
- In a tattoo piece in The Raven.
- The phrase has been spoofed slightly by the band Ghost in the song “Per Aspera Ad Inferi” from their album Infestissumam[45] literally meaning “Through hardships to hell”.
- Title of a background track from the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire video games which plays during a voyage into space.
- In the 2015 film The Martian, at the end of the film astronaut Mark Watney is giving his first lecture to the Astronaut Candidate Program and the phrase appears embedded in the central floor area of the lecture hall around a logo.
- Title of character leveling achievements in Mistwalker’s mobile game Terra Battle.
- Found in the Gravity Falls Journal #3, penned on the title page. Appears on the journal both in the show and on the real-life replica.
- The title of a Pee Wee Gaskins album (2010).
- The title character in Ottessa Moshfegh‘s novel Eileen accepts and smokes a Pall Mall and refers to the motto on the package translated as “Through the thorns to the stars.”
- On the ship the students find in Astra Lost in Space, there is a plaque with this saying on it.
- The motto of the Golds in Pierce Brown‘s Red Rising Series.
- Ad Astra is a 2019 American science fiction film by James Gray.
- Appears in the logo of the Universal Paperclips Advanced AI Research Group.
- In the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, Per Aspera Ad Astra is the Noble Phantasm (finisher move) name of the Grand Lancer Servant: Romulus=Quirinus.
- Title of a cosmetic weapon wrap in Fortnite released for International Women’s Day 2022.
Others
- SpaceX has begun to use it in their Starship program.
- Satellogic uses it in its pirate culture flag.
- As part of the official team crest of Arendal Football
- As part of the team crest of the former Collingwood Cricket Club.
- A plaque honoring the astronauts of Apollo 1 at the launch site where they perished.
- A tribute exhibit to the Apollo 1 Astronauts “Ad Astra Per Aspera – A Rough Road Leads to the Stars” opened on January 27, 2017, the 50th anniversary of the loss of the crew, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
- Inscribed on the crest of Pall Mall cigarettes packages
- The theme of “POR CC XXI” by Kolese Kanisius Jakarta
- Part of a custom paint job in World Of Tanks
- Tradewinds Swiss
- Space Development Network
- Part three of the book Jepp who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh has the phrase as its title.
- Appears in Morse code on the track titled “Sounds of Earth” on the Voyager Golden Record that has copies aboard the Voyager 1 & 2 spacecraft that are currently in interstellar space.
- Is also the motto of the famous Italian historical videomaker Nova Lectio.