Monday, March 21, 2011

Esse Quam Videri

"Esse Quam Videri" is Latin for "To be, rather than to appear"  it can be found in Cicero's essay "On Friendship".  It is also the state motto for North Carolina and the motto for many organizations.

This is a statement that I feel rather infects the world today more than ever.  So many times we act like we are going to do something, like we want to do something, but for unknown reason we don't risk it or we don't do it.  We brush it aside and go on to something else that might be a little easier for us to do.

How often do we meet someone, or just see someone having fun and joking around with their friends and think to ourselves.  "Man that guy/girl looks like they are so fun to be around, they "appear" to be a great friend."  Then when we do get the opportunity to get to know them, we find that they are not who they "appear" to be.

How often do we do that to others?

So many people act or "appear" to be a certain person around some people, but around others they tend to be a totally different person. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said - "No man, for any considerable period of time, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the truth."

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