Mottos

[mmcnealy]

So my friends, a time has come for me to chose a motto, and since I can't create a poll because I'm too cheap to pay for a membership, you get to put up with this.

Here are your choices (although if you have any other suggestions I'm open to them). Please place your vote in the comments :)

1- Potius sero quam numquam. It is better to be late than never.
2-  Audentes fortuna juvat. Fortune favors the bold.
3-  Non omnes possumus omnia. We cannot all do everything.
4- Ad fontes - To the sources.
5- Amore Ac Studio - Love of Learning.
6- Amor est vitae essentia - Love is the essence of life

Comments

[ursula]

How are you going to use the motto?

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

For right now its going at the bottom of my SCA calling card. In the future it might go on a banner or a piece of embroidery.

[ursula]

I'd go with "Audentis Fortuna Juvat", which is a quote from the Aeneid. It looks to me like the best period style: it's concise, quoting the Classics or the Bible was popular in Latin mottoes, and mottoes about boldness were common on standards, so it would be a good choice for a banner. Latin mottoes weren't actually all that popular until the end of our period, but of course that works for your persona.

[noxcat.livejournal.com]

For you, I think #4 is most appropriate.

[pandorasbox.livejournal.com]

Number 6

[pandorasbox.livejournal.com]

mine is dum vivimus, vivamus "let us live while we have life"

[rectangularcat]

#2 defiintely

[stitchwhich.livejournal.com]

Gee, and here I was going to say number 5 because it seems to reflect what I know about you.

Go with one that is *you*.

[katanubis.livejournal.com]

I'm strongly leaning toward #5 also, with #4 coming in a distant second.

Those seem to be most indictative of your public appearance, as opposed to what is going on behind the scenes at home. But it all depends on what you want out of the phrase.

[aliskye.livejournal.com]

I like No 2 but 4 seems more like you. :)

agree with aliskye

[friendlytornado.livejournal.com]

I like 2 best but number 4 is very you. I think you should rule out 1 first.

[wingedcorset.livejournal.com]

I don't feel comfortable picking out a motto for someone else. That being said, 1 & 2 strike me as being extraordinarily cliche.

[ursula]

For what it's worth, you have extremely free translations of #4 and #5: #4 is literally "To the fountain-heads", and though fons (plural fontes) certainly was used metaphorically, the water meaning was definitely primary (whereas although the English word source CAN mean the source of a river, that's not what people think of first). #5 is literally "With love and enthusiasm". (The word student comes from the same root, because students are supposed to be enthusiastic. I always think about that when education types go on about "educators" and "learners"-- what was wrong with being enthusiastic?)

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

You're right, those are really free translations! Thanks for the literal translations, definitly makes the choice easier. :D

[ursula]

I think "Love of Learning" would be "Amor Doctrinae" or "Amor Eruditionis".

I may have been a little hard on "Ad Fontes"; it looks like the phrase did pick up the metaphorical associations pretty early:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_fontes

The Vulgate quote there is roughly, "Just as much as the deer yearns for the springs of water, my soul yearns for you, God."

I wonder now if "Ad fontes" in the mouth of a sixteenth-century German would have been a religious/political statement, in favor of a direct rapport with God and a return to reading the Bible (as opposed to taking the Catholic Church as intermediary)?

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

I was originally going to go with #4 or #5, and after Ursule's new translations I still stick to either of those, consider my extremely limited knowledge of you as someone who loves to study the sources! :-)

[kelli-enkeli.livejournal.com]

#2

[gailsedotes.livejournal.com]

i believe a motto should be accurate and humourous
how about "Audentes fortuna serum" - fortune favors the late ?

mine is carpe carpe - sieze the fish

[gailsedotes.livejournal.com]

not saying that you are not punctual...

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

Or is that "sieze the siezure"? ;-)

[tonyadmay.livejournal.com]

I favor the ones with a positive tone: 2, 4, 5, or 6. I love #6 - it's truly what matters in life, one way or another whether it's love for family or what you do. :)

#4

[queenalia.livejournal.com]

Because it seems more unusual, and it is brief.

Number 5 as a back up...

[isenglass.livejournal.com]

My vote is for either 2 or 5. 1 and 3 sound self defeating and the remainder just don't strike me one way or another.