A motto is a succinct statement of beliefs or ideals and may either be a sentence or a short phrase. An individual may have a personal motto, an organization or business may have a motto that doubles as an advertising slogan, nations can have mottos, and political candidates’ slogans can also be mottos. The purpose of a motto is to remind stakeholders of the foundational beliefs that underpin an effort.

A personal motto may either be part of a public family tradition, as with inscriptions that accompany a family’s coat of arms, or an individual and private choice. A personal motto may be in the person’s native language, but there are many mottoes that have been traditionally rendered in Latin. Here are some examples of personal mottoes:

Cooperatores Veritatis (Co-workers of the Truth: Pope Benedict XVI, chosen as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger)

Vi et veritate (By force and by truth: Sloan family motto – Scotland)

Semper Eadem (Always the same: Queen Elizabeth 1 of England)

Rebellion to Tyrants is Obediance to God (Epitaph of Benjamin Franklin, adopted by Thomas Jefferson as a motto)

A motto is one type of content that may be included in an organization’s advertising slogan. Unlike slogans that focus on name-recognition or product features, a slogan that is a motto will point to the underlying principles of the organization. Here are several examples:

All the news that’s fit to print. (The New York Times)

Inspiring Minds (Dalhousie University, Canada)

Notice that The New York Times motto refers to the organization’s discernment and discrimination in choosing what to present to their readership, as well as the breadth of their coverage. The New York Times motto is so well known and associated with quality, that the parodic publication The Onion jocularly used the slogan “all the news that’s fit to reprint” in promoting The Onion Presents Embedded in America, Volume 16 of their archives. Dalhousie University also focuses on their relationship with their customers, who are their students.

National mottos are often connected with a country’s coat of arms or its currency. Some are more descriptive than idealistic. Here are some examples:

A mari usque ad mare (From sea to sea: Canada’s official motto)

In God We Trust (United States motto, introduced on currency in 1864)

E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One, United States motto, introduced on currency in 1795)

In addition to keeping a candidate’s name in the public eye and in the public’s ear, campaign slogan can be a motto, expressing the public relations version of the ideals or beliefs of the candidate or the party, as these examples show:

Prosperity and Progress (Al Gore, 2000)

Compassionate conservatism (George W. Bush, 2000)

Government of, by, and for the people . . . not the monied interests (Ralph Nader, 2000)

Notice that Nader’s motto quotes from President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, connecting Nader with everything that Lincoln expressed in that great speech.