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:
Etiam si omnes, ego non
English:
Even if all others, I will never
This Latin phrase has ancient origins and continues to be used today most often as a motto. You might remember its English translation from the New Testament of the Bible.
Matthew 26:35: Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
Of course, as you might know, Peter in fact did deny Jesus three times.
(more on the phrase, via wiki)
Etiam si omnes, ego non is a Latin phrase often used as a motto, which translates into English approximately as “Even if all others, I will never“.
It is the motto of the family of Clermont-Tonnerre; the title of a poem by Ernest Myers and the inscription on the tombstone of Italian philosopher Giuseppe Rensi. It is also the motto of the Italian Joint Special Forces Operations Headquarters.
A variant is Latin: Et si omnes ego non, as written on the door of Philipp von Boeselager‘s home, highlighting the necessity of maintaining one’s own opinion and moral judgment, even in the face of a differing view held by the majority (in particular, it refers to von Boeselager’s dissent and resistance against Hitler during the Nazi dictatorship). The last part of the phrase, in its German translation, is the title of an autobiographical work of Joachim Fest: Ich nicht.
A longer variant of the phrase can be seen in a passage from the Vulgate Gospel of Matthew 26:33: Latin: “Respondens autem Petrus ait illi et si omnes scandalizati fuerint in te ego numquam scandalizabor.”, lit. ‘Peter replied, ‘All the others may turn away because of you. But I never will.” (Greek: Εἰ πάντες σκανδαλισθήσονται ἐν σοί, ἐγὼ οὐδέποτε σκανδαλισθήσομαι, Ei pantes skandalisthēsontai en soi, egō oudepote skandalisthēsomai.)
Below is the above mentioned Ernest Myers poem:
Etsi Omnes, Ego Non
by Ernest MyersHERE where under earth his head
Finds a last and lonely bed,
Let him speak upon the stone:
Etsi omnes, ego non.Here he shall not know the eyes
Bent upon their sordid prize
Earthward ever, nor the beat
Of the hurrying faithless feet.None to make him perfect cheer
Join’d him on his journey drear;
Some too soon, who fell away;
Some too late, who mourn to-day.Yet while comrades one by one
Made denial and were gone,
Not the less he labor’d on:
Etsi omnes, ego non.Surely his were heart and mind
Meet for converse with his kind,
Light of genial fancy free,
Grace of sweetest sympathy.But his soul had other scope,
Holden of a larger hope,
Larger hope and larger love.
Meat to eat men knew not of:Knew not, know not—yet shall sound
From this place of holy ground
Even this legend thereupon,
Etsi omnes, ego non.
