Dum spiro spero

The sense of dum spiro spero can be found in the work of Greek poet Theocritus (3rd Century BC), who wrote: "While there's life there's hope, and only the dead have none."Idyll 4, line 42; translation by A. S. F. Gowin Theocritus ([1950] 1952) vol. 1, p. 37. That sentiment seems to have become common by the time of Roman statesman Cicero (106 – 43 BC), who wrote to Atticus: "As in the case of a sick man one says, 'While there is life there is hope' [dum anima est, spes esse], so, as long as Pompey was in Italy, I did not cease to hope."Epistulae ad Atticum, Book 9, Letter 10, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0022%3Atext%3DA%3Abook%3D9%3Aletter%3D10 English] (Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh translation),

[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0008%3Abook%3D9%3Aletter%3D10 Latin]

Matthew Henry (1662–1714), commenting on Ecclesiastes 9:3–4, directly related and applied the term to biblical King Solomon's ecclesiastical understanding of life as it relates to a supernatural afterlife. Henry's use suggests that there is eternal hope of heaven while people are living, but this hope is lost once their breath is gone if they choose to live unrighteously ("While there is life there is hope. Dum spiro, spero – while I breathe, I hope.").Henry, Matthew, [https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Ecc/Ecc_009.cfm?a=668003 Commentary on Ecclesiastes 9] (1706) Henry's application also implies that the phrase's general idea predates Greek thought as it was first recorded in the 10th century BC in Masoretic texts.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

The phrase is present in modern day in a representation of the seal of South Carolina printed in March 1785 and in 1777.{{Cite web|title=South Carolina State House {{!}} South Carolina State Symbols|url=https://www.scstatehouse.gov/studentpage/coolstuff/seal.shtml|access-date=2021-11-28|website=www.scstatehouse.gov}} At some point, by 1890 it was used as the motto of the town of St Andrews,{{Cite book|last=Porteous|first=Alexander|url=https://archive.org/details/towncouncilseals00portuoft/page/270/mode/2up|title=The Town Council Seals of Scotland, Historical, Legendary and Heraldic|publisher=Johnston|year=1906|location=Edinburgh|pages=270-271|language=English}} Scotland, and is visible on heraldry around the town from the mid-19th century onwards.{{Cite web|last=Stuff|first=Good|title=Town Hall And Library, South Street, St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife|url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/200386659-town-hall-and-library-south-street-st-andrews-st-andrews|access-date=2021-11-28|website=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk}}{{Cite web|title=Tour Scotland Photography St Andrews|url=https://tour-scotland-photographs.blogspot.com/2012/01/tour-scotland-photographs-town-hall-st.html|url-status=live|website=Blogspot|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128025537/https://tour-scotland-photographs.blogspot.com/2012/01/tour-scotland-photographs-town-hall-st.html |archive-date=2021-11-28 }}

• Cothill House Preparatory School in Oxfordshire, England.{{Cite web|title=Cothill House (@CothillHouse) {{!}} Twitter|url=https://twitter.com/CothillHouse|access-date=2019-01-28|website=twitter.com|language=en}}
• The Czech Army's 601st Special Forces Group, based in Prostějov[http://www.601skss.cz/english/index_en.html 601skss]
• [http://www.dispuutstropdas.nl dispuut STROPDAS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208144840/http://dispuutstropdas.nl/ |date=2021-12-08 }}, part of Eindhovensche Studenten Roeivereniging Thêta (Student Rowing Club in Eindhoven, Netherlands)
• Fairfield College, a secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand
• Oliver Lodge Primary School in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
• The Principality of Hutt River{{citation needed|date=September 2014}}
• The Raj of Sarawak.{{cite book|author=Nigel Barley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dr3uGQ7iegC&pg=PT101|title=White Rajah: A Biography of Sir James Brooke|date=20 June 2013|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-0-349-13985-2|pages=101–}}{{cite book|author=Lukas Straumann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-F8aCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT63|title=Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia|date=21 October 2014|publisher=Schwabe AG|isbn=978-3-905252-69-9|pages=63–}}
• St Andrews, Fife
• The State of South CarolinaSCIWAY [http://www.sciway.net/facts/sc-state-seal-motto.html "South Carolina State Seal and South Carolina State Mottos"]. South Carolina Information Highway. Retrieved April 23, 2016.

• on the wall of Edzell Castle, and spelled out by the shrubs in the castle's walled garden
• on medallions marking the Barbary Coast Trail in San Francisco, California{{Cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Survival-tips-for-life-on-the-Barbary-Coast-6690198.php#photo-7381306|title = Survival tips for life on the Barbary Coast|date = 14 December 2015}}
• on a stained glass window of Beverly Unitarian Church in Chicago. Also in Chicago, it is inscribed above the doorway of 220 E. Walton Place.

• Japanese avant-garde metal band Dir En Grey named their eighth full-length album Dum Spiro Spero.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/dum-spiro-spero/dir-en-grey|title=Dum Spiro Spero by Dir en Grey|website=Metacritic}}

Dum spiro spero is used as a motto by armigerous families including the Corbet baronets of Moreton Corbet (both creations), the Hoare baronets of Annabella, Co. Cork, the Cotter baronets of Rockforest, Co. Cork, and the Viscounts Dillon.The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Bernard Burke, Harrison & Sons, 1884, pp. 228, 286, 494

The Sharp and Sharpe clans of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.{{cn|date=March 2023}} Royal military.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

The Williamson Clan from Scotland ; and the Scottish Clan MacLennan.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

Individuals who used the motto include Charles I,{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/05/charles-i-message-poetry-book-university-challenge|title=Charles I's 'message for the future' discovered in poetry book|last=Flood|first=Alison|date=2018-07-05|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-07-31}} King of England; Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak,The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Bernard Burke, Harrison & Sons, 1884, p. 129 and the merchant seaman and privateer, later Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands, Woodes Rogers.The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down

• List of Latin phrases

{{reflist}}

• {{Wikiquote-inline|Theocritus#Idylls|Theocritus}}
• {{Wikiquote-inline|Cicero#Various_orations_and_works|Cicero}}
• {{Wiktionary-inline|hope springs eternal}}

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Category:Latin mottos

Category:State mottos of the United States

de:Liste lateinischer Phrasen/D#Dum