Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post highlights the very positive message in the motto of Norwich University.

The small Vermont university with arguably the best school motto

I was attending a graduation at Norwich University in Vermont a while back and the school’s seal caught my eye, especially the engraved motto: “I Will Try.” How refreshing.

Many school seals include grandiose often-Latin mottos about truth and light and freedom and God, in contrast to the simplicity of the one at Norwich, the oldest private military college in the United States, with about 2,300 cadets, civilian residents and commuters as well as about 1,200 online graduate students. “I Will Try” is a statement of principle the school wants its students to embrace, one that validates effort and not simply result.

Another great motto comes from Ohio State University. In Latin it’s “Disciplina in civitatem”; in English it’s “Education for citizenship.” Not “education for a job with a high salary.” The motto distinctly states the purpose of education in this American democracy: to educate America’s young people to have the knowledge and thinking skills to be active citizens.

Contrast those mottos — as shown on the schools’ shields — with the common English translation:

Harvard University: “Veritas” — “Verity” or “truth”

Stanford University: “Die Luft der Freiheit weht” — “The wind of freedom blows”

University of Texas at Austin: “What starts here changes the world”

University of Miami: “Magna est veritas” — “Truth is mighty”

Northwestern University: “Quaecumque sunt vera” — “Whatsoever things are true”