Royal Society - Motto

Motto

The Society's motto, Nullius in verba, is Latin for "Take nobody's word for it". It was adopted to signify the Fellows' determination to establish facts via experiments and comes from Horace's Epistles, where he compares himself to a gladiator who, having retired, is free from control.

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Famous quotes containing the word motto:

    My friend devotes himself to his life, whenever he can find the spare time. His motto is: ‘Don’t just sit there: live!’ So he’s too busy to stand, to walk, to do anything, except to live. He even refused to kiss a girl, when invited, on the grounds that it was time again to be living. Schedules are sacred to him.
    Marvin Cohen, U.S. author and humorist. The Self-Devoted Friend, New Directions (1967)

    Ex oriente lux may still be the motto of scholars, for the Western world has not yet derived from the East all the light which it is destined to receive thence.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I always say, my motto is “Art for my sake.” If I want to write, I write—and if I don’t want to, I won’t. The difficulty is to find exactly the form one’s passion—work is produced by passion with me ... Mwants to take.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)