I was bouncing around the internet and veered onto a short promotional video for my alma mater, UC Berkeley. At the end the speaker closed with “Fiat Lux”. The English translation of this phrase, “Let there be Light” is on the university seal, but the exotic brevity of the Latin made it extra cool.
That made me think of my current institution’s motto, “All for Country”, a high calling even if I’m not ready to commit “All”.
Even so, both of these are a bit more exciting than the motto of my graduate school, Rice University. “Letters, Science, Art”, which is descriptive enough I guess.
I suspect that having its not a bad idea to have a good motto for constantly centering oneself. The hard part is finding that particular mantra.