Salus populi suprema lex esto

Salus populi suprema lex esto (Latin: "The health [welfare, good, salvation, felicity] of the people should be the supreme law"; "Let the good [or safety] of the people be the supreme [or highest] law";[1] or "The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law") is a maxim or principle found in Cicero's De Legibus (book III, part III, sub.

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;[6] The motto was featured on the masthead of the Irish medical journal Medical Press and Circular.

[7] 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, Salus publica suprema lex, was used as an epigraph for the third pamphlet of the White Rose.

[8] The banner of the Polish Straż Marszałkowska contains the similar phrase Salus rei publicae suprema lex (Latin: "The safety (or welfare) of the republic is the supreme law").