I'm enjoying the colorful map with all the mottos. I've been inspired to memorize them (other than the extra mottos some states have (one per state, please)).
Some states have crazily long mottos. (Massachusetts is my favorite overlong motto.) Some are super-short, the shortest being that of Rhode Island, which is also the smallest state.
My personal favorite motto is Maryland's: "Manly deeds, womanly words."
The Washington motto got me playing this old song.
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New Hampshire's is just awesome. Texas really disappoints.
Technically, Rhode Island is tied with Washington for the shortest. And of course, Michigan has not one but two peninsulae. So much Latin on the map, so little Greek!
My state has officially terminated its tourist slogan, "Nebraska, It's Not for Everyone."
I like Illinois'.
Yo! You bring da lettuce?
Don't think of Edgar Allen Poe, H.L. Mencken or even John Barth as writers of womanly words.
Hey,Texas! What was the problem there, cowboy? I mean "Hope", thats it?
As Trump would say: Low energy.
Wyoming has "equal rights" which tied in with its giving Cowgirls the vote in 1890. They thought the females would all move out west for equal rights, but seems wimmin were more interested in being Unequal back in the settled east.
I like VAs motto - Sick semper Tyranus.
Looks like Delaware just copied Pennsylvannia's homework. New Joisy didn't put much effort into it either.
I don't know. I like the Mexican cartel motto plata e plumbo (Silver or Lead). It does tend to sharpen the mind of the official it's offered to--and maybe enrich his purse.
I've ALWAYS liked ours, and thought it Most Best:
Our Liberties We Prize, and Our Rights We WILL Maintain
But i have to say (as a Union Forever, True Blue Patriot), that North Dakota's is Pretty Awesome Too:
Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable
FUCK the confederacy! FUCK the Rebels! FUCK JEFF DAVIS
The Marylanders didn't give much thought to their state's heraldry. Basically, they adopted the arms of the Calvert family -- the escutcheon, the helm, the crest, the baronial coronet, the baronial mantle, and the motto -- and added a pair of not-very-imaginative supporters. (The Clavert supporters are a pair of leopards)
All those emblems of hereditary aristocracy, not very fitting for a sovereign state within a federated republic, if you ask me.
I thought New Hampshire changed the motto to "Mask Up Or Die."
In NH we always have to explain that "Live Free or Die" is part of a longer quote, which goes on to say "Death is not the worst of evils."
Michigan's always rang true to me. It is a pleasant peninsula. Or, as corrected earlier by Clyde, two peninsulas. I loved living there. And now I love remembering it from Florida.
"And of course, Michigan has not one but two peninsulae"
Actually, as pointed out in the Reddit comments, Michigan has peninsulae on peninsulae: The thumb in the LP, and Keweenaw in the UP.
The Maryland motto is actually in Italian: Fatti Maschii Parole Femine. The traditional translation, "Manly deeds, Womanly words," has been desexed to "Strong Deeds, Gentle Words." Personally as a transplant to Maryland, I translate it as "Fat Men, Talkity Women."
"It grows as it goes." Not sure what it means but far out man :)
I like New Mexico’s : The Land of the Plague, and the Home of the Flea.
NM's unofficial motto: "Not Really New, Not Really Mexico."
"It's Terrific in Tifton" is my favorite. No offense to the residents, but terrific isn't the first thing that comes to mind, which makes me wonder what the "it" is actually referring to.
Missouri's official "May the welfare of the people be the supreme law" is way too stuffy and maybe a little wavering at the same time. I prefer the slogan demanding evidence, that originated with the actual people: "Show me!"
My personal favorite motto is Maryland's: "Manly deeds, womanly words."
Which could be restated (not by me of course) as, "Men do, women talk."
State mottoes are as useless as organization's mission statements.
rcocean said...
“Looks like Delaware just copied Pennsylvannia's homework.”
Maybe Delaware realized it’s just not that virtuous.
North Carolina's is pretty stand-up: "To be, rather than to seem."
As someone who earned an Aerospace engineering degree at the University of Kansas, I have always liked that the state motto of Kansas and NASA's official motto are the same. "Ad Astra Per Aspera" - "To the Stars Through Difficulty".
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