What every state motto really means (Latin decoded)

State mottos are short by design. Most are three or four words, carved on great seals, printed on letterhead and copy-pasted onto official memos. Twenty of them, two in five, are in Latin, a nod to Enlightenment-era ideas about republican virtue. A few are in Hawaiian, French, Spanish or Chinook trade jargon, remnants of the languages that were spoken in that territory before it became a state. This guide translates all 50 and explains where each phrase came from.

The complete list of 50 mottos with translations

State	Motto	Language / Translation
Alabama	Audemus jura nostra defendere	Latin: "We dare defend our rights"
Alaska	North to the Future	English
Arizona	Ditat Deus	Latin: "God enriches"
Arkansas	Regnat populus	Latin: "The people rule"
California	Eureka	Greek: "I have found it"
Colorado	Nil sine numine	Latin: "Nothing without providence"
Connecticut	Qui transtulit sustinet	Latin: "He who transplanted still sustains"
Delaware	Liberty and Independence	English
Florida	In God We Trust	English
Georgia	Wisdom, Justice, Moderation	English
Hawaii	Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono	Hawaiian: "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness"
Idaho	Esto perpetua	Latin: "May it be perpetual"
Illinois	State sovereignty, national union	English
Indiana	Crossroads of America	English
Iowa	Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain	English
Kansas	Ad astra per aspera	Latin: "To the stars through difficulties"
Kentucky	United we stand, divided we fall	English
Louisiana	Union, justice, confidence	English
Maine	Dirigo	Latin: "I lead"
Maryland	Fatti maschii, parole femine	Italian: "Manly deeds, womanly words"
Massachusetts	Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem	Latin: "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty"
Michigan	Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice	Latin: "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you"
Minnesota	L'Etoile du Nord	French: "The Star of the North"
Mississippi	Virtute et armis	Latin: "By valor and arms"
Missouri	Salus populi suprema lex esto	Latin: "The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law"
Montana	Oro y plata	Spanish: "Gold and silver"
Nebraska	Equality before the law	English
Nevada	All for our country	English
New Hampshire	Live free or die	English
New Jersey	Liberty and prosperity	English
New Mexico	Crescit eundo	Latin: "It grows as it goes"
New York	Excelsior	Latin: "Ever upward"
North Carolina	Esse quam videri	Latin: "To be, rather than to seem"
North Dakota	Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable	English
Ohio	With God, all things are possible	English
Oklahoma	Labor omnia vincit	Latin: "Labor conquers all things"
Oregon	Alis volat propriis	Latin: "She flies with her own wings"
Pennsylvania	Virtue, liberty and independence	English
Rhode Island	Hope	English
South Carolina	Dum spiro spero	Latin: "While I breathe, I hope"
South Dakota	Under God the people rule	English
Tennessee	Agriculture and commerce	English
Texas	Friendship	English
Utah	Industry	English
Vermont	Freedom and unity	English
Virginia	Sic semper tyrannis	Latin: "Thus always to tyrants"
Washington	Alki	Chinook trade jargon: "By and by"
West Virginia	Montani semper liberi	Latin: "Mountaineers are always free"
Wisconsin	Forward	English
Wyoming	Equal rights	English

The 20 Latin mottos

Twenty of the 50 state mottos, two in five, are in Latin. Most were adopted in the 1800s, when Latin still had prestige as the language of law, science and republican virtue. A few classics:

• Ad astra per aspera (Kansas): "To the stars through difficulties." Adopted in 1861, four months after statehood and six weeks into the Civil War. The image is Bleeding Kansas: hard road, distant stars.
• Sic semper tyrannis (Virginia): "Thus always to tyrants." Coined by ancient Romans and later shouted by John Wilkes Booth after shooting Lincoln.
• Excelsior (New York): "Ever upward." Adopted in 1778, one of only two one-word Latin mottos (with Maine's Dirigo), and lending its name to the Longfellow poem and Marvel Comics catchphrase.
• Esse quam videri (North Carolina): "To be, rather than to seem." From Cicero, De Amicitia.
• Montani semper liberi (West Virginia): "Mountaineers are always free." Adopted in 1863 when the state seceded from Confederate Virginia.
• Dum spiro spero (South Carolina): "While I breathe, I hope." From Cicero, Ad Atticum.
• Salus populi suprema lex esto (Missouri): "The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law." From Cicero, De Legibus.

Mottos in other languages

• Hawaii (Hawaiian): "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono," spoken by King Kamehameha III in 1843 after the British restored Hawaiian sovereignty following a brief seizure.
• Minnesota (French): "L'Etoile du Nord," a nod to the French Canadian voyageurs who traded here in the 1700s. The state was carved from part of the Louisiana Purchase.
• Montana (Spanish): "Oro y plata," referring to the gold and silver rushes of the 1860s and 1880s.
• Maryland (Italian): "Fatti maschii, parole femine." A 17th-century Calvert family motto, controversial today for its gendered wording; the state officially recasts it as "Strong deeds, gentle words."
• Washington (Chinook Jargon): "Alki," meaning "by and by" or "eventually," used by early Puget Sound traders. The only US motto in a Native American trade language.
• California (Greek): "Eureka." Attributed to Archimedes and adopted in 1849 in reference to the Sutter's Mill gold strike.

The shortest and most memorable

Eight states have a one-word motto: California ("Eureka"), Maine ("Dirigo"), New York ("Excelsior"), Rhode Island ("Hope"), Texas ("Friendship"), Utah ("Industry"), Washington ("Alki") and Wisconsin ("Forward"). New Hampshire's "Live free or die," from a toast by Revolutionary War General John Stark in 1809, is the most quoted, and appears on every state license plate. Alaska's "North to the Future," coined in a 1963 contest held by the Alaska Purchase Centennial commission, was adopted in 1967, eight years after statehood.

Mottos that appear on flags and seals

• New Hampshire's "Live free or die" is embossed on every state license plate since 1971.
• Kansas's "Ad astra per aspera" appears above the state seal on the state flag.
• New York's "Excelsior" sits on the scroll beneath the shield of the state coat of arms.
• Virginia's "Sic semper tyrannis" appears on the state seal beneath a figure of Virtue standing over a fallen tyrant.
• Michigan's Latin motto, translated as "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you," appears on the state flag inside a wreath.

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