Dusty Phrases

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.

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Latin:

Esse quam videri

English:

To be, rather than to seem

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One might rather be a billionaire than to seem like one.

This phrase is ancient and dates back to Cicero, with variants even earlier. Today, it remains in use largely as a motto. (via wiki)

Esse quam videri is a Latin phrase meaning “To be, rather than to seem.” It and variants have been used as a motto by a number of different groups. The form Esse, non videri (“to act, not to seem to be”) is the Wallenberg family motto.

History

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).

Usage as a motto

Esse quam videri is the state motto of North Carolina, adopted in 1893.

What does North Carolina hope to be, rather than to seem to be? Perhaps it is always better to be than to seem to be.