What's in a Motto ?

My Motto
Nec Arrogantia Nec Despero
Is a loose Latin translation of the phrase "Neither presumption nor Despair"

It is a reference and a Battle Cry :

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G.K. Chesterton wrote

in Autobiography 1936 :

"I began by being what the pessimists called an optimist; I have ended by being what the optimists would very probably call a pessimist. And I have never in fact been either, and I have never really changed at all. . . . For indeed, I never saw the two sides of this single truth stated together anywhere, until I happened to open the Penny Catechism and read the words, "The two sins against Hope are presumption and despair."

and in Orthodoxy 1909 :


" The evil of the pessimist is, then, not that he chastises gods and men, but that he does not love what he chastises--he has not this primary and supernatural loyalty to things. What is the evil of the man commonly called an optimist? Obviously, it is felt that the optimist, wishing to defend the honour of this world, will defend the indefensible. "

" I came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself. "
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When I first read these words I realized this is what I too had always felt.

That indeed my battle cry in this life is to Encourage the Virtue of HOPE .

Not that any of us should presume "all is well" in all things
nor
That any of us should despair that "nothing is well" .

Hope includes an aspect that our spirits should have Faith that things will turn out well while simultaneously that our bodies will work for that end.

An old cliche' comes to mind

Work as if what you do matters most. Pray as if it does not.