North Carolina Symbols Part VII

State Motto, Esse Quam Videri - Esse Quam Videri (To be rather than to seem) The General Assembly of 1893 adopted the words "Esse Quam Videri" as the State's motto and directed that these words with the date "20 May, 1775," be placed with our Coat of Arms upon the Great Seal of the State
The motto is a literal translation of a phrase from a sentence in Cicero's "On Friendship" (De Amicitia, chapter 26). The complete sentence in Latin is:
Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt (Fewer possess virtue, than those who wish us to believe that they possess it).
Until the act of 1893, North Carolina had no motto, being one of the few states--and the only one of the original thirteen--without one.
What a great motto that can and should be applied to all the aspects of our lives, today as much as ever!