Non nobis solum

Last updated

Non nobis solum (English: "not for ourselves alone") is a Latin motto. Common variations are non nobis, sed omnibus ("not for us, but for everyone") and non nobis solum, sed omnibus. It means that people should contribute to the general greater good of humanity, apart from their own interests.

Contents

Origin

The motto is derived from a sentence in Cicero's most influential philosophical work, his treatise On Duties (Latin: De Officiis ). In full, Cicero writes, "non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici" ("Not for us alone are we born; our country, our friends, have a share in us"; De Officiis, 1:22). The sentence, as Cicero himself says, is a literal translation of a sentiment from Plato's Epistle to Archytas. [1] In the context of the passage, the sentence means that "humans have been created for the sake of others of their kind, indeed, to benefit each other as much as possible". [2] Cicero associates this concept with the Stoic ideal of cosmopolitanism, according to which all men have a natural kinship with all other men and need to "contribute to the general good by an interchange of acts of kindness (officia), by giving and receiving." [3]

Usage by organizations

The motto is used by numerous organizations, including the United States Army 1st Maintenance Company [4] and schools including Massanutten Academy, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Pennthorpe School, Lower Canada College, University College, Durham, [5] University of Victoria's St. Joseph School of Nursing, [6] Washburn University, [7] Willamette University, [8] Swarthmore College (Class of 1918's motto), [9] and Camp Kanawana, a YMCA camp north of Montreal, Quebec. [10] [11] It is the motto of the Baron Haden-Guest and appears in the Baron's coat of arms. The motto was also incorporated into the coat of arms for Frank Seiberling and appears over the entrance to Stan Hywet, their Akron, Ohio mansion built in the early 1900s. [12] This motto was also part of the crest of the family of George Fosberry, soldier and arms designer. The crest and motto can be seen on the breech of the surviving example of his Breechloading prototype rifle. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeno of Citium</span> Hellenistic philosopher, founder of Stoicism (c. 334–c. 262 BC)

Zeno of Citium was a Hellenistic philosopher from Citium, Cyprus. He was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in accordance with nature. It proved very popular, and flourished as one of the major schools of philosophy from the Hellenistic period through to the Roman era, and enjoyed revivals in the Renaissance as Neostoicism and in the current era as Modern Stoicism.

A brocard is a legal maxim in Latin that is, in a strict sense, derived from traditional legal authorities, even from ancient Rome.

Hyperbaton, in its original meaning, is a figure of speech in which a phrase is made discontinuous by the insertion of other words. In modern usage, the term is also used more generally for figures of speech that transpose sentences' natural word order, and it is also called anastrophe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University College, Durham</span> Constituent college of the University of Durham

University College, informally known as Castle, is the oldest constituent college of the University of Durham in England. Centred on Durham Castle on Palace Green, it was founded in 1832 by William van Mildert, Bishop of Durham. As a constituent college of Durham University, it is listed as a higher education institution under section 216 of the Education Reform Act 1988. Almost all academic activities, such as research and tutoring, occur at a university level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Haden-Guest</span> UK peerage title

Baron Haden-Guest, of Saling in the County of Essex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 2 February 1950 for the Labour Party politician Leslie Haden-Guest. He had previously represented Southwark North and Islington North in the House of Commons. His fourth son, the fourth Baron, was a United Nations official for many years.

<i>Pro Archia Poeta</i>

Cicero's oration Pro Archia Poeta is the published literary form of his defense of Aulus Licinius Archias, a poet accused of not being a Roman citizen. The accusation is believed to have been a political move against Lucullus through Archias. The poet was originally Greek but had been living in Rome for an extended period of time. A letter from Cicero to Titus Pomponius Atticus in the year following the trial makes mention of Archias, but there is no conclusive evidence about the outcome of the trial. The oration was rediscovered in Liège by Petrarch in 1333.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Albans School, Hertfordshire</span> Public school in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England

St Albans School is a public school in the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire. Entry before Sixth Form is for boys only, but the Sixth Form has been co-educational since 1991. Founded in 948 by Wulsin, St Albans School is not only the oldest school in Hertfordshire but also one of the oldest in the world. The school has been called "Britain's oldest public school" by the Daily Mail. Nicholas Carlisle, in 1818, described the school as "of very ancient origin, and of great celebrity" and the Good Schools Guide describes St Albans as a "traditional public school, with a rich history".

<i>Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium</i> Collection of letters by Seneca

The Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, also known as the Moral Epistles and Letters from a Stoic, is a letter collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for more than ten years. They are addressed to Lucilius Junior, the then procurator of Sicily, who is known only through Seneca's writings. Regardless of how Seneca and Lucilius actually corresponded, it is clear that Seneca crafted the letters with a broad readership in mind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naparima Girls' High School</span> Secondary school in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago

Naparima Girls' High School is an all-girls high school in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. The school was founded in 1912 by Rev Dr. Fulton Coffin to complement the education offered to boys by Naparima College. It is located on La Pique Hill which overlooks San Fernando.

Latin obscenity is the profane, indecent, or impolite vocabulary of Latin, and its uses. Words deemed obscene were described as obsc(a)ena, or improba. Documented obscenities occurred rarely in classical Latin literature, limited to certain types of writing such as epigrams, but they are commonly used in the graffiti written on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Among the documents of interest in this area is a letter written by Cicero in 45 BC to a friend called Paetus, in which he alludes to a number of obscene words without actually naming them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath</span>

William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath was Lord Lieutenant of Devon. His seat was at Tawstock Court, three miles south of Barnstaple in North Devon, which he rebuilt in the Elizabethan style in 1574, the date being sculpted on the surviving gatehouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archbishop's Palace, Armagh</span> Municipal building in Armagh, Northern Ireland, England

The Archbishop's Palace, Armagh, Northern Ireland, is a landmark Neo-Classical building located on 300 acres of parkland just south of the centre of the city. The building served as primary residence of the Church of Ireland Archbishops of Armagh for over two hundred years, from 1770 to 1975, and thereafter as headquarters of Armagh City and District Council from then until April 2015 when that local authority was replaced following the reform of local government in Northern Ireland in that year.

Latin syntax is the part of Latin grammar that covers such matters as word order, the use of cases, tenses and moods, and the construction of simple and compound sentences, also known as periods.

Latin word order is relatively free. The subject, object, and verb can come in any order, and an adjective can go before or after its noun, as can a genitive such as hostium "of the enemies". A common feature of Latin is hyperbaton, in which a phrase is split up by other words: Sextus est Tarquinius "it is Sextus Tarquinius".

The main Latin tenses can be divided into two groups: the present system, consisting of the present, future, and imperfect; and the perfect system, consisting of the perfect, future perfect, and pluperfect.

A temporal clause is an adverbial clause of time, that is to say, a clause which informs the reader about the time when the action of main verb of the sentence occurred. So in a sentence such as "after I had said this, he went out", the first clause is a temporal clause. The name comes from the Latin word tempus, genitive temporis, 'time".

Conditional clauses in Latin are clauses which start with the conjunction sī 'if' or the equivalent. The 'if'-clause in a conditional sentence is known as the protasis, and the consequence is called the apodosis.

References

  1. ↑ Ps.-Plato, Epistle 9.358a
  2. ↑ Dyck, Andrew R. (1996). A Commentary on Cicero, De Officiis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. pp. 112–113. ISBN   978-0-472-10719-3.
  3. ↑ De officiis 1.22, transl. Walter Miller, 1913
  4. ↑ Stein, Barry Jason; Capelotti, Peter Joseph (1993). U.S. Army Heraldic Crests: A Complete Illustrated History of Authorized Distinctive Unit Insignia. University of South Carolina. p. 184. ISBN   978-0-87249-963-8.
  5. ↑ Durham University (2013-06-25). "University Calendar: Arms and Mottos - Durham University". Durham University . Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  6. ↑ Vogel, Theresa (2010-11-05). "Non nobis solum" (PDF). Washington State History Museum . Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  7. ↑ "History". www.washburn.edu. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  8. ↑ Large, Larry (2010-05-15). "Non Nobis Solum Nati Sumus" (PDF). Willamette University . Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  9. ↑ "An Update on the Spring Semester". www.swarthmore.edu. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  10. ↑ "Terry Mosher gets Pip award from YMCA's Camp Kanawana". Montreal Gazette. 2015-08-09. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  11. ↑ "Camp YMCA Kanawana". www.facebook.com. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  12. ↑ "History of Stan Hywet hall & gardens".
  13. ↑ Forgotten Weapons (2017-08-05), Major Fosbery's Breechloading Prototype Rifle, archived from the original on 2021-12-19, retrieved 2017-08-07
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.