50 Fun Facts About National Mottos

Which country's Latin motto, A mari usque ad mare, means From Sea to Sea and comes from Psalm 72?

Canada took the phrase from Psalm 72:8 when its coat of arms was redesigned in 1921. In 2007 the three territorial premiers asked for a third sea, to count the Arctic coast.

Which Latin phrase was the unofficial US motto until In God We Trust became official in 1956?

E pluribus unum, meaning out of many, one, has sat on the Great Seal since 1782. Its thirteen letters match the thirteen colonies that became the first states.

Which country, born of a slave revolt, shares France's motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity?

Haiti names the three words as its national motto in its constitution. Its coat of arms carries a different line, about unity.

Botswana's one-word motto, Pula, also the name of its currency, means what in Setswana?

Rain is so scarce in Botswana, home to much of the Kalahari Desert, that the word doubles as a wish for blessing or fortune. Three wavy lines on the coat of arms stand for it.

Switzerland's unofficial motto, One for all, all for one, was made famous by which Dumas novel?

The Three Musketeers made the line famous in 1844, and the Swiss took it up in 1868 to rally aid after floods in the Alps. Its Latin form is written inside the dome of the Federal Palace.

Which country's flag carries its motto, Order and Progress, on a band across a starry blue globe?

Brazil borrowed the words from the French philosopher Auguste Comte, whose positivist creed set order as the basis and progress as the goal. A 2021 campaign tried to add love to the flag.

In God We Trust first appeared on United States coins, on a two-cent piece, during which conflict?

The Civil War was still being fought when the two-cent piece of 1864 first carried the words. They did not become the official national motto for another 92 years.

Which country's flag has nine stripes said to match the syllables of its motto, Freedom or Death?

Greece took the motto from the war cry of its 1820s revolt against Ottoman rule. In the original wording, five blue stripes cover the first word and four white stripes the rest.

Scotland's Latin motto, No One Provokes Me with Impunity, first referred to which national plant?

Thistle spines, legend says, made a Viking raider cry out in the dark and alert the Scots before the Battle of Largs in 1263. The motto runs round the rim of some one pound coins.

Which organization chose its motto, United in Diversity, through a contest among 80,000 students?

European Union students from the then 15 member countries entered the contest, and the winning line was adopted in 2000. Its Latin form is In varietate concordia.

Which country's motto, Plus ultra, appears with the Pillars of Hercules on its coat of arms?

Spain inherited the motto from Emperor Charles V, who turned around an old warning said to mark the edge of the known world: nothing further beyond. The motto means further beyond.

Which Caribbean country replaced a Latin motto with Out of Many, One People at independence in 1962?

Jamaica chose the line as a tribute to the unity of its many cultural minorities. The Latin motto it dropped, dating from colonial rule, had spoken of two peoples serving one lord.

Which country's motto, Unity in Diversity, sits on a scroll gripped by the mythical bird Garuda?

Indonesia took the phrase, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, from a 14th-century Old Javanese poem that urged tolerance between Hindus and Buddhists. It was written into the constitution in 2000.

Which country's one-word motto, Harambee, comes from a Swahili call meaning all pull together?

Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, used the word to rally the new nation after independence in 1963. It is thought to have begun as a chant of porters lifting heavy loads.

The Soviet state motto, Workers of the world, unite, was a rallying cry from which 1848 pamphlet?

The Communist Manifesto of 1848, by Marx and Engels, gave the Soviet state emblem its slogan. Flora Tristan had used the phrase in a book of her own five years earlier.

SPQR, the motto of the Roman Republic, names the people of Rome alongside which governing body?

The Senate comes first in the full phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus. Rome still uses the four letters on its municipal coat of arms and in official city documents.

Which country's flag carries its motto, the Islamic declaration of faith, in white above a sword?

Saudi Arabia's green flag pairs the creed with a sword that stands for safety and justice. Because the creed is holy, the flag is never lowered to half-mast in mourning.

Which president signed the 1956 law that made In God We Trust the official United States motto?

Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it on July 30, 1956, a year after approving a law that put the phrase on all American currency. The first note to carry it was a one-dollar silver certificate.

Which country's unofficial motto, Unity and Justice and Freedom, opens verse three of its anthem?

Germany sings only that third verse as its national anthem, so the motto begins every performance. The words are also inscribed on army belt buckles and the rims of some coins.

Dieu et mon droit, the British monarch's motto, is said to have begun as which king's battle cry?

Richard the Lionheart is said to have shouted it, God and my right, when he beat the French king at Gisors in 1198. Henry V later made it the royal motto of England.

Which country's presidential flag carries the motto Truth Prevails, linked to the reformer Jan Hus?

The Czech Republic inherited the motto from Tomáš Masaryk, who adopted it in 1918 as the first president of Czechoslovakia. From 1990 to 1992 the banner carried it in Latin as a neutral compromise.

Which small country's motto, drawn from an 1859 railway song, means We Want to Remain What We Are?

Luxembourg took the line from De Feierwon, a patriotic song written to honour the country's first international railway. It voices the people's wish to keep their independence and identity.

Which country took Unity Makes Strength as its national motto after winning independence in 1830?

Belgium first used the motto only in French, adding a Dutch version once that language gained equal status. The unity it had in mind joined nine provinces, and liberals with Catholics.

Which country's motto, Faith, Unity, Discipline, was laid down by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah?

Pakistan adopted the motto in 1948 and added it to the national emblem in 1954, at first in both Urdu and Bengali. Jinnah had pressed the three words on the country's youth.

Which country's Sanskrit motto declares that mother and motherland are greater than heaven?

Nepal carries the line on a red scroll at the base of its emblem. Tradition gives the words to the hero Rama, who in one telling says that even golden Lanka does not tempt him.

Singapore's motto, Majulah Singapura, is written in which of the country's four official languages?

Malay is Singapore's national language, and the motto, meaning Onward Singapore, is also the title of the national anthem. It runs in gold on a blue ribbon beneath a lion and a tiger.

India's national motto, Satyameva Jayate, is drawn from which body of ancient Hindu scripture?

The Upanishads supply the line, from a mantra in the Mundaka Upanishad that means truth alone triumphs. India adopted it on 26 January 1950, the day it became a republic.

Which Andean country's motto, added to its coat of arms in 1920, means By Reason or Force?

Chile shows the motto on a white band under a shield held up by a condor and a huemul, a native deer. Both animals wear golden naval crowns, a salute to the navy's deeds in the Pacific.

Which Central American country's Latin motto means For the Benefit of the World?

Panama swapped its motto, Pro mundi beneficio, for Justice, Honor and Freedom in 1941, then went back to the old one five years later. A harpy eagle, the national bird, tops the coat of arms.

Iraq's flag carries which phrase, also the national motto, meaning God is the greatest?

Allahu Akbar was added between the flag's stars by Saddam Hussein in January 1991, reportedly in his own handwriting. A later redesign kept the words but set them in traditional Kufic script.

Which country's motto, Homeland or Death, came from a 1960 speech mourning a harbour explosion?

Cuba heard the words from Fidel Castro at a memorial for those killed when the ship La Coubre blew up in Havana. A second pledge, We Shall Prevail, was added to the motto that July.

Which country's flag bears its motto, God, Fatherland, Liberty, beside an open Bible and a cross?

The Dominican Republic sets a Bible, opened at the Gospel of John, in the coat of arms at the centre of its flag. The emblem reflected the Christian ideals of the founding father Duarte.

Which tree stands behind the shield on Belize's arms, above the motto Under the Shade I Flourish?

Mahogany logging drove the Belizean economy in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the shield shows a woodcutter's tools. The motto nods to the forests and to the colony's start under British protection.

The Bahamian motto, Forward, Upward, Onward Together, sits beneath a marlin and which other animal?

Flamingo and marlin, the national animals, hold up the shield, one standing on land and the other on the sea. The ship on the shield is said to be the Santa María of Columbus.

Which country's motto, Diverse People Unite, is written in ǀXam, an extinct Khoisan language?

South Africa introduced the motto with a new coat of arms on Freedom Day in 2000. It replaced a Latin line, Ex Unitate Vires, from the days of the old union.

Which island nation's Latin motto calls it the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean?

Mauritius gave the same name to its highest civilian honour in 1992. On the coat of arms, a dodo and a sambar deer flank the shield, each holding a stalk of sugar cane.

Which country's emperors, claiming descent from Solomon, used a motto hailing the Lion of Judah?

Ethiopia showed the lion on its flag from 1897 until 1974, when Haile Selassie, the last emperor, was deposed. The motto, in the old Ge'ez language, declared that the Lion of Judah has conquered.

Which wartime leader's regime replaced France's motto with the words Work, Family, Fatherland?

Philippe Pétain headed Vichy France, which dropped Liberty, Equality, Fraternity in 1940. In 1941 he turned the first of May into a festival of labour and social harmony.

The Dutch national motto, Je maintiendrai, was inherited from the family arms of which dynasty?

The House of Orange-Nassau gained the motto, French for I shall maintain, through the princedom of Orange, which a Nassau heir inherited in 1530. Early versions ended with a family name, first Châlons and later Nassau.

The cryptic five-vowel motto A.E.I.O.U., coined by Emperor Frederick III, belonged to which dynasty?

The Habsburgs used the five vowels for centuries, yet the meaning is still debated; the best-known reading says Austria is destined to rule the world. Frederick III marked buildings and even his tableware with them.

Honi soit qui mal y pense, shown on the British royal arms, is the motto of which knighthood?

The Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III, is the highest of all British knighthoods. Its Old French motto, shamed be whoever thinks ill of it, sits on a garter drawn around the shield.

Which Central American country shares its official motto, In God We Trust, with the United States?

Nicaragua uses the phrase in translation, En Dios confiamos, and stamps it on its coins. The state of Florida made the same words its official motto in 2006.

Which country's motto, Liberty and Order, flies on a scroll beneath an Andean condor on its arms?

Colombia perches the condor, a symbol of freedom, on top of its shield with an olive crown. The motto is written in black on a golden scroll just below the bird.

Which Pacific island nation's motto, Fear God and Honour the King, has sat on its arms since 1908?

Fiji kept its colonial coat of arms, motto included, after independence in 1970. A golden lion at the top of the shield grips a cacao pod in its paw.

Which microstate, surrounded entirely by Italy, has the single Latin word Libertas as its motto?

San Marino sets the word, Latin for freedom, on a ribbon under three towers that stand for the citadels on Monte Titano. Each tower is topped with an ostrich feather.

Which country's four-part motto, adopted in 1998, pledges love of God, people, nature and country?

The Philippines drew the words from the last lines of its pledge of allegiance to the flag. Commentators have noted that most Filipinos are unaware the motto exists.

Which kingdom's motto, Siyinqaba, set below a lion and an elephant, means We Are the Fortress?

Eswatini uses the lion to stand for the king and the elephant for the queen mother. Between them is a traditional Nguni shield, a symbol of protection.

Who popularized Liberty, Equality, Fraternity in a 1790 speech on organizing the National Guard?

Maximilien Robespierre gave the speech in December 1790, and political clubs spread it across France. The motto only became official under the Third Republic, almost a century later.

Ich dien, meaning I serve, is the motto beneath the three-feather badge of which royal title?

The Prince of Wales owes the badge, legend says, to the Black Prince, who took it from the blind King John of Bohemia after the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Prince Arthur first used its modern form.

Which leader's 1944 speech gave China's ruling party its motto, Serve the People?

Mao Zedong gave the speech to honour Zhang Side, a soldier and Long March veteran who died when a kiln collapsed. During the Cultural Revolution people were encouraged to memorize it.