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Who really said it

Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law

Written by Marcus Tullius Cicero 106–43 BC · Roman statesman, orator and philosopher
The attribution is secure and precisely located — Cicero’s Latin sentence is quoted below from De Legibus 3.3.8. What is <strong>not</strong> established is who produced this particular English rendering: no source consulted names a translator for it, and the 1853 Bohn translation words the same clause differently. Rights unconfirmed

Cicero wrote it, but not in English and not quite as a slogan. The line comes from De Legibus (On the Laws), Book III — a draft legal code Cicero composed for an ideal republic — where the Latin reads “Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto”: for them, the welfare of the people shall be the supreme law. The “them” matters: the clause is addressed to the holders of consular power, who have just been told they answer to no one. This exact English wording, though, is of unknown authorship. Wikiquote ↗ prints it with no translator credited, and the nineteenth-century Bohn translation renders the same clause as “for the safety of the people is the supreme law.”

Last verified 1 Oct 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law” Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Legibus 3.3.8 — Latin: “Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto.” The English wording in circulation has no identified translator; the 1853 Bohn version reads “for the safety of the people is the supreme law”

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We couldn’t establish where this was first published, so there’s no rights status to give. Credit it as shown above — just don’t present it as public domain, and get permission for commercial or published reuse.

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Provenance

The source

Work
De Legibus (On the Laws)
Locator
Book III, chapter iii, section 8 — cited as De Legibus 3.3.8
Latin
Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto
Context
Part of a drafted law code, in the archaic legal style Cicero adopts for it
Translation
Translator unidentified for this exact English wording — see the fact-check below

Regio imperio duo sunto, iique … praetores iudices consules appellamino. Militiae summum ius habento, nemini parento. Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto. De Legibus 3.3.8

The Latin as it stands in De legibus, Liber III on Latin Wikisource ↗, at section marker 8. The quoted maxim is the last clause; the sentences before it are what ollis (“for them”) refers back to.

Latin primary text
De legibus, Liber III (Latin Wikisource)
De legibus, Liber III — Latin text

How we verified this

  • The Latin was read first-hand in De legibus, Liber III ↗: section marker 8 carries “Regio imperio duo sunto … Militiae summum ius habento, nemini parento. Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto.”
  • Wikipedia’s article on the phrase ↗ gives the same locator — “book III, part III, sub. VIII” — and offers several English versions, including “Let the good [or safety] of the people be the supreme [or highest] law” and “The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law.” None is the wording quoted here.
  • The nineteenth-century Bohn translation was checked directly. In The Treatises of M.T. Cicero ↗ (London: H. G. Bohn, 1853), the passage reads “Let them have supreme authority over the army, and let them be subject to none; for the safety of the people is the supreme law” — same sense, different words.
  • Wikiquote’s sourced Cicero page ↗ carries the wording used here and cites “Book III, section 3,” naming no translator. Its neighbouring entries do credit theirs (Barham, Yonge), which is why the omission is worth flagging rather than filling in.
  • Note on the locator: “Book III, section 3” is the chapter. The section number within it is 8, which is why the usual scholarly citation is 3.3.8.

Cicero’s Latin is unquestionably in the public domain — he died in 43 BC. The English wording shown is a different matter: no source consulted names its translator or the edition it came from, so quotle.info asserts no rights status for it rather than guessing. Readers who need a translation of known provenance can use the 1853 Bohn version linked above, which is public domain.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What to watch for

Nobody else is credited with this line. The problems are the wording and the locator.

Marcus Tullius Cicero Genuine

Secure. The Latin sits in De legibus, Liber III ↗ at section 8, and Wikipedia ↗ gives the same locator.

“Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law” Translator unknown

Widely repeated, including on Wikiquote ↗, always without a translator. The 1853 Bohn edition reads “for the safety of the people is the supreme law,” and Wikipedia lists three further variants. Treat the English as a gloss, not a quotation from a known edition.

“Ollis” Context

The maxim is almost always quoted without its first word. Ollis is archaic Latin for illis — “for them” — and it ties the rule to the consuls just granted supreme military authority. Dropped, the sentence becomes a general principle; in Cicero’s draft it is a limit on named office-holders.

“Book III, section 3” Imprecise

A common citation, and it names the chapter. The section is 8, so the standard reference is De Legibus 3.3.8 — which is what Wikipedia ↗ gives as “book III, part III, sub. VIII.”

Cicero wrote the sentence; the English you have seen is anonymous, and the version that circulates has quietly lost the word that said who it applied to.

Context

Why it mattered

The line has had a long second career. It is the state motto of Missouri and of the University of Missouri, and it appears on the Seal of Missouri; it is also a standing citation in constitutional argument, usually invoked to justify emergency powers — which is close to the opposite of its position in Cicero’s text.

In De Legibus it is a constraint. The consuls have just been told they hold supreme military authority and answer to nobody; the very next clause tells them what they are for. The maxim is the leash, not the licence.

Militiae summum ius habento, nemini parento. Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto.

Read the full story

Cicero wrote the law code in deliberately archaic Latin — sunto, habento, parento, esto — the imperative forms of real Roman statute, to make his invented laws sound ancient rather than new. That style is why the sentence quotes so well: it already reads like something carved rather than argued. It is also why the loss of ollis goes unnoticed. A statute addressed to particular magistrates, stripped of its addressee, turns into a maxim addressed to everybody, and a clause limiting power starts doing duty as one that expands it.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

De legibus, Liber III — Latin textla.wikisource.org

The complete Latin of Book III with section numbers. Section 8 carries “Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto.”
Salus populi suprema lex estoen.wikipedia.org

The phrase’s afterlife: the locator in De Legibus, several competing English translations, and its use as the motto of Missouri.
The Treatises of M.T. Cicero (Bohn, 1853)archive.org

The Bohn edition containing On the Laws in English. Its rendering is “for the safety of the people is the supreme law.”
De Legibusen.wikipedia.org

Background on the dialogue in which Cicero drafts a law code for an ideal republic.
Ciceroen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s sourced collection, where this English wording appears under De Legibus Book III with no translator named.
Ciceroen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the author, 3 January 106 BC to 7 December 43 BC.

The author

About Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero

106–43 BC · Roman statesman, lawyer, orator and philosopher

Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) wrote De Legibus as a companion to his De Re Publica: a dialogue that stops arguing about law in the abstract and simply drafts one, in deliberately archaic legal Latin. That is why this line reads like statute rather than philosophy — it is statute, written for a republic that existed only on the page, by a man watching the real one come apart.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Cicero, De Legibus 3.3.8: “Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto.” Latin text: De legibus, Liber III, sec. 8 (Latin Wikisource). For a translation of known provenance, see The Treatises of M.T. Cicero (London: H. G. Bohn, 1853), which renders the clause “for the safety of the people is the supreme law.”

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law’?” Last verified 1 Oct 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/let-the-welfare-of-the-people-be-the-ultimate-law/

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