Pretentious Latin Motto


 * This troper, being a big Bungie fan, has adopted their motto, Non Facete Nobis Calcitrare Vestrvm Pererinaevm. What is this in English? Don't Make Us Kick Your Ass.
 * This Troper's school has one of these, and no, no-one knows what it means (mainly because no-one really cares). From what he knows, nearly all English schools have one (There are at least three other schools with similar mottos that said troper knows about... god these tenses are confusing!)


 * Ours was Per Aspera Ad Astra. Yes, our motto was similar to Starfleet's. *rolls eyes*
 * BETTER YET: Per Aspera Ad Astra is Kansas' state motto. Go Kansas!
 * We had Sic Itur Ad Astra the English equivalent of which was something like 'in this way we go to the stars'.
 * Boston Latin School's is Sumus Primi, "We're first".
 * This Troper's school motto: "Integritas in Omnibus" (Translates to "Integrity in everything")
 * This Troper attended a real-life Berzerkeley where the motto was Omnia Exteres, "Let it all hang out", directly inspired by the school's quite phallic mascot.
 * This troper went to the same school. Go, Geoducks!
 * This troper's school has "Levo Oculos Meos In Montes", "I lift my eyes to the mountains". It's a Bible verse (Psalm 121), in Latin. If you don't realize how silly that is, go look up how much of the Bible was written in Latin. We'll wait.
 * All of it, at least in translation. It's called the Vulgate, and it forms the basis for most English translations.
 * Originally in Latin: none. The Old Testament is in biblical Hebrew (seasoned with a little Aramaic), the New Testament is in ancient Greek, a few of the non-canon scriptures are in Coptic. Latin translations came later.
 * This troper's school motto was/is "misericordias Domini in aeturnum cantabo". That's "I shall sing forever of the mercy of the Lord". He quite likes its sombre tone; it fits the school itself nicely.
 * We had Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, "a sound mind in a sound body."
 * Our school motto was "Alta Petens", which means "aim high". That they only mentioned a few dozen times a week. At least this troper's university eschews Latin for Welsh in its motto.
 * Interestingly, 'petens' comes from 'peto, petere' etc, which means a number of things including 'seek' and 'attack.'
 * Aim for the face?
 * "Verum, Bonum, Pulchrum". Actually, I kind of like it.
 * This troper's schools have had Pretentious English mottos. At least with a Latin, or at least Canis Latinicus motto, you don't look as jackass because nobody knows whether it's saying "INSERT PRETENTIOUS COMMENT HERE" or "Demons are bad. Kill demons. Also, pick up your groceries."
 * Ditto for me, although "Knowledge Is Power" is less pretentious than most and makes perfect sense for a high school.
 * Do I sense a KIPP person? "Work hard. Be nice."
 * This troper's local university is "Libertas capitur", meaning "liberty is conquered". or so we're told,anyway.
 * This troper's school went for "Esse Quam Videri", which apparently meant 'be, rather than seem to be'. All this troper knows is that it was great for making anagrams out of whilst bored in assembly.
 * Not a school motto, but this Troper did used to have 'NATUS NECARE' written on his kevlar helmet. The grammar is a bit off (for the sake of punchinessness), but you get the idea.
 * This troper likes to use a playful riff on Julius Caesar's famous "I came, I saw, I conquered." When she goes shopping, she tells people, "Veni, vidi, Visa!"
 * Eddie Van Helsing tends to say, "I came, I saw, she conquered" when asked to explain how he and his wife got together.
 * This Troper once found a reference to the Blackadder family motto as being 'Veni, Vidi, Castratavi Illegitimos'. 'I came, I saw, I castrated the bastards'.
 * Vici, veni, V.D....
 * The motto of this troper's secondary school is "semper fidelis", meaning "always faithful".
 * Your secondary school churns out Marines? Cool... oh, wait, 'secondary' school - probably not American, then. Shame.
 * This troper's high school's motto is "Altiora peto," which directly translates as "I want to go higher." Since it was that type of high school, we always translated it as "I want to get high." And we did.
 * This troper's school has a Pretentious Hebrew Motto. Seriously.
 * Ours is 'Justus Et Tenax' - either 'Fair and Tenacious' or 'Justice and Tenacity'. No one's entirely sure.
 * 'Via Veritatis'. To those of you who don't speak dead languages, it means 'The Road to Truthfulness'. This troper prefers to refer to it as 'The Road to Truthiness'.
 * Connecticut's state motto is 'Qui transtulit sustinet' or 'he who is transplanted sustains.' This troper lives in the poor, desolate rust belt area of the state and likes to interpret that as 'If you get the hell out now, you won't die inside.'
 * In Michigan, we've got "Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice" - "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you." Nowadays, it's more like "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look somewhere else," particularly if you live in the bombed-out ruin that is Metro Detroit.
 * This Michigan resident would agree that Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw are Third World cesspits, but the rest of the state is rather nice, if one doesn't mind long winters.
 * This troper once proposed that his school district adopt 'Sola in Insania Virtus Stat'; "Madness is the only virtue." I don't think they ever checked what it meant.
 * This Troper's school is "Scriptor, Gubernator, et Legatus" which means "Writer, Governor, and Ambassador". So, our motto is basically extolling the virtues of Adlai E. Stevenson...
 * This Troper goes to Kirckaldy High School, the same one Mr. Brown, the PM, went to.Our motto is "Usque Conabor", or "I will strive to do my utmost".I don't like it.
 * This Troper's Latin IV class created a Latin battle cry, which sounded intimidating only when said in Latin: "GENU, GENU, GENU . . . " which translates to "knee, knee, knee, . . . "
 * Aah!
 * This Troper's motto is Unicis Defensores Unicem Adligantur - "Those who defend Unix are doomed to repeat it."
 * For Nationstates, this troper uses the following motto for her country: Potes meo suaviari clunes. Kiss my ass.
 * Deus Regit was my school's motto. Yeah, ok, whatever guys.
 * This troper uses "Beati Pauperes Spiritu" or "Heureux les simples d'esprit" as a Stealth Insult- It's part of a quote: "Blessed are the simple-minded, the Kingdom of Heaven will belong to them".
 * This Troper's all girls catholic high school had 'Via Vertitas, et Vita'. 'The Way, the Truth, and the Life'
 * This troper read a story where a university wanted its motto to be the Latin translation of "I hear, I see, I learn". As soon as they received the translation, they immediately switched to another motto, because "I hear, I see, I learn" translates to Latin as "Audio, video, disco".
 * Possibe variation: This Tropers school has, for no reason I can figure out, a pretentious french motto; "Que Tout Soit Pour Dieu" (May All Things Be for God).
 * This Troper had Faire sans dire: shut up and get on with it.
 * This Troper's Catholic school has 'In Hoc Signo Spes Mea', which translates to 'In this sign is my hope' referring to the cross I guess. Also, our war cry is mainly latin or pseudo latin.
 * This troper's high school was stuck with Tuum Est, aka "It's up to you". Way to take the pressure off, guys.
 * According to This Troper's stepmom, the motto of the President of the college she worked at was "Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam." Roughly translated: "I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head."
 * This Troper's alma mater: Civium in moribus rei publicae salus. "The welfare of the state depends upon the morals of its citizens." OK.
 * This troper used a couple on some political-simulation forum games in high school on one of the Civilization boards:
 * When I moderated one, the motto was Justitia et Honor. It's exactly what it sounds like.
 * When I ran a country, I kind of went overboard:
 * The national motto I appropriated from somewhere: In necesariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas: In necessity unity, in doubt, liberty, in all things charity.
 * The military motto was appropriated from Scotland: Nemo nos impune lacessit.
 * I recycled Justitia et honor for the judiciary.
 * The motto of the Foreign Office was In pace gloria.
 * Excel-2009. I have one for myself: Ego vos pugno.
 * This troper has a T-shirt with the words: Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes, which according to the store translates as, "If you can read this, you're overeducated." On a bus one time, a fellow passenger told the troper that shirt had made her day.
 * This Troper's school motto was "Propositi Tenax". He maintains this means "Prosperous and Tenacious", but the headteacher insisted it meant "Go for it!". So Yeah. His PE teacher tried to give them a Canis Latinicus battlecry, but we just went with "Bangarang!"