That’s the lowest percentage among residents of any state, the TV station reported. In fact, only 13 percent of North Carolinians know the state motto, according to a survey taken by CBS17 TV news in Raleigh. I had forgotten her, till I looked closely at my new license plate, which I had to request specifically and at the last second at the license plate office here in the hometown and after the clerk had already processed for me a standard “First In Flight” plate honoring the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. However, during the British colonial period, North Carolina did have a motto on its great seal, a Latin phrase that meant “Which, though late, looked upon me.” That was reason enough to split with Great Britain.Ĭhances are you don’t know Esse Quam. General Assembly adopted the motto in 1893, making North Carolina the last of the onetime 13 British colonies to adopt a motto. motto, the North Carolina motto has secular roots, taken from the classical Roman orator, senator and consul Cicero, who opposed Julius Caesar and dictatorship, and from Cicero’s essay “On Friendship.” Classical Greek philosophers Socrates and Eschylus also are credited with the sentiment. Don’t pretend to be something that you’re not. It’s a Latin phrase and translates “to be rather than to seem.” It speaks to genuineness and integrity. It’s the North Carolina counterpart to the national motto at the top of the license plates.īut the state motto is very different. The phrase is a translation of the state motto, Esse Quam Videri. And it’s as if the phrase sits confident and comfortable in what it is, where it is and what it means to North Carolina. It’s as if the bottom motto doesn’t care that it’s small and plays second fiddle. In small, thin, cursive lettering the bottom phrase seems defiant. It’s right there on the “In God We Trust” license plates.
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