Massachusetts State Motto: Ense Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem

Massachusetts's state motto is Ense Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem, Latin for By the Sword We Seek Peace, But Peace Only Under Liberty. It was formally adopted in 1780, when Massachusetts ratified its own constitution — the oldest functioning written state constitution still in continuous use in the United States.

The phrase was not written for Massachusetts. It is attributed to Algernon Sidney, an English republican theorist who was beheaded in 1683 for arguing that political authority belongs to the people, not the monarch. Choosing his words for a colonial government arming itself against British rule was a deliberate act.

The standard English translation is By the Sword We Seek Peace, But Peace Only Under Liberty. This is the version used by Massachusetts official sources.

A shorter version sometimes appears as By the Sword We Seek Peace, But Only Peace Under Liberty. The word order shifts slightly but the meaning does not change. The key phrase is the final condition: peace only under liberty, not peace under any circumstance.

Paul Revere designed the first Massachusetts seal in 1775 for the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, months before independence was declared. He incorporated the Latin phrase attributed to Algernon Sidney into the seal as a statement of Revolutionary purpose. Sidney had been beheaded in London in 1683 on charges of treason after writing that governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed, not from the divine right of kings.

Choosing Sidney's phrase was a pointed political act. A colonial government preparing to fight the British crown adopted a motto written by a man the British crown had killed for opposing it. The motto tied Massachusetts directly to a tradition of republican thought that predated the American Revolution by nearly a century.

When Massachusetts adopted its constitution in 1780, the seal — and with it the motto — was formally incorporated as the official emblem of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts used the term Commonwealth rather than State, a distinction preserved in the seal's border inscription Sigillum Reipublicae Massachusettensis, meaning Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In 2024, Massachusetts established the Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission to develop recommendations for possible new state symbols. The process reopened discussion about the seal's imagery and motto, but as of the time of publication the traditional seal and motto remain officially in effect under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 2, Section 1.