Esse quam videri is a Latin phrase meaning "To be, rather than to seem." It and variants have been used as a motto by a number of different groups. The form Esse, non Videri ("to act, not to seem to be") is the Wallenberg family motto. History Esse quam videri is found in Cicero's essay On Friendship (Laelius de Amicitia, chapter 98). Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt ("Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so"). Just a few years after Cicero, Sallust used the phrase in his Bellum Catilinae (54.6), writing that Cato the Younger esse quam videri bonus malebat ("He preferred to be good rather than to seem so"). Previous to both Romans, Aeschylus used a similar phrase in Seven Against Thebes at line 592, at which the scout (angelos) says of the seer/priest Amphiaraus: (ou gàr dokeîn áristos, all' eînai thélei: "he doesn't want to seem, but to be the bravest"). Plato quoted this line in Republic (361b). Usage as a motto North Carolina Esse quam videri is the state motto of North Carolina, adopted in 1893. Schools and colleges Esse quam videri is (or was) the motto of a number of schools and colleges around the world, including: Academia de Guerra del Ejército de Chile, Santiago, Chile Academy of the Holy Names, Tampa, Florida Academy of the Holy Names, Albany, New York Academy at the Lakes, Land O Lakes, Florida Accra Academy, Accra, Ghana Albert Academy, Freetown, Sierra Leone Amarillo High School, Amarillo, Texas St Anselm's School, Bakewell, England St Audries School, East Quantoxhead, Somerset, England Appalachian State University (1899), Boone, North Carolina Ashford School (1899), Ashford, Kent, England Ashville College (1877), Harrogate, England Augusta Preparatory Day School (1972), Augusta, Georgia, USA Bedford College, University of London until c.1990, when Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges merged and it became the motto of the joint college Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts, USA and Valencia, Spain Bordentown Military Institute, (1881-1973), Bordentown, NJ, USA Boys' Latin School of Maryland (1844), Baltimore, Maryland, USA Brigham Young University Men's Chorus, Provo, Utah, USA Chania High School, Thika, Kenya Clifton House Preparatory School, Harrogate, England Colyton Grammar School (1546), Colyford, England Columbia College Chicago (1890), Chicago, Illinois, USA Connells Point Public School, Sydney, Australia Cranbrook School, Sydney (1918), Sydney, Australia Darwin High School, Darwin, Australia Desert Heights Preparatory Academy,