Non scholae sed vitae

Non scholæ sed vitæ is a Latin phrase. Its longer form is non scholæ sed vitæ discimus, which means "We do not learn for school, but for life". The scholae and vitae are first-declension feminine datives of purpose.

Inscription at the Hermann-Böse-Gymnasium

The motto is an inversion of the original, which appeared in Seneca the Younger's Moral Letters to Lucilius around AD 65.[1] It appears in an occupatio passage wherein Seneca imagines Lucilius's objections to his arguments. Non vitae sed scholae discimus ("We learn [such literature] not for life but for classtime") was thus already a complaint, the implication being that Lucilius would argue in favor of more practical education and that mastery of literature was overrated.[2] During the early 19th century, this was emended in Hungary and Germany to non scholae, sed vitae discendum est ("We must learn not for school but for life").[3][4]

References
  1. Annaeus Seneca, Lucius. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, CVI. (in Latin)
  2. Annaeus Seneca, Lucius. Gummere, Richard (trans.). Moral Letters to Lucilius, Vol. III, No. 106. Harvard University Press (Cambridge), 1925. Hosted at Wikisource. Accessed 30 May 2014.
  3. Cited by Kelemen, Imre. Institutiones Juris Hungarici Privati, Vol. I, §80. 1818. Hosted at Google Books. Accessed 30 May 2014. (in Latin)
  4. Oberdeutsche Allgemeine Litteraturzeitung, No. 70, p. 1119. Zeitungs-Comtoir (Munich), 12 Jun 1804. Hosted at Google Books. Accessed 30 May 2014. (in German)
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