John Locke uses it as the
epigraph in the form in his
Second Treatise on Government and refers to it as a fundamental rule for government. It was the inscription on the cornet of
Roundhead and
Leveller William Rainsborowe during the
English Civil War. This motto was also endorsed by
Hobbes at the beginning of Chapter 30 of
Leviathan and by
Spinoza in Chapter 19 of his
Theological-Political Treatise. It was frequently quoted as since at least 1737. In the United States, the phrase is the
state motto of
Missouri and the
University of Missouri, and accepted, like many other states, as an element of its
state seal. It is also used for
Manassas Park, Virginia, and the
Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. It is also on the seal of the North Carolina Medical Board. It also appears on many
coats of arms, sometimes in variant forms such as , or . In the United Kingdom, these coats of arms include the
City of Salford, the
London Borough of Lewisham,
Eastleigh,
Harrow,
Southport,
Lytham St. Anne's,
Mid Sussex,
West Lancashire,
Swinton and Pendlebury,
Urmston and
Willenhall; The motto was featured on the masthead of the Irish medical journal
Medical Press and Circular. The monument to the 1914-1918 1940-1945 Belgian infantry (place Poelaert, Brussels) includes on its western face (opposite to the avenue Louise) salus patriæ suprema lex. A misquotation, , was used as an epigraph for the third pamphlet of the
White Rose. The banner of the Polish
Straż Marszałkowska contains the similar phrase (
Latin: "The safety (or welfare) of the republic is the supreme law"). It is prominently engraved on the front of
Walworth Town Hall, former headquarters of the
Metropolitan Borough of Southwark, and its successor administration,
Southwark Borough Council. The final canon 1752 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church contains the words "prae oculis habita salute animarum, quae in Ecclesia suprema semper lex esse debet" (having before his eyes the welfare/salvation of souls, which in the Church ought always to be the supreme law). This is often interpreted as an adaptation of Cicero's epithet to canon law.. ;Gallery File:Seal of Missouri.svg|
Salus populi suprema lex esto on the
Seal of Missouri File:Southport coat of arms.jpg|The coat of arms of
Southport File:University of Missouri bookplate.png|A bookplate from
Ellis Library at the
University of Missouri File:Coat of Arms of Padang (1926).svg|Coat of arms of
Padang during
Dutch Colonisation ==See also==