Quotes About E Pluribus Unum

In Washington, the translation of E Pluribus Unum has been lost. The belief that we are one nation - united in purpose - caring about and for one another is no longer the practice.

'E pluribus unum' is perhaps the most obnoxious motto the Founders could have come up with, as far as liberals are concerned. They don't mind the e pluribus part - they love to note the things that divide and separate us. But they positively despise the unum part.

Just a month after the completion of the Declaration of Independence, at a time when he delegates might have been expected to occupy themselves with more pressing concerns -like how they were going to win the war and escape hanging- Congress quite extraordinarily found time to debate business for a motto for the new nation. (Their choice, E Pluribus Unum, One from Many, was taken from, of all places, a recipe for salad in an early poem by Virgil.)

My favorite thing about the United States? Lots of Americans, one America.

And if an increasingly pluralistic America ever decides to commission a new motto, I'm open for business, because I've got a better one than E pluribus unum. Tu dormis, tu perdis . . . You snooze, you lose.