With God, all things are possible

[2] Quoted from the Gospel of Matthew, verse 19:26, it is the only state motto taken directly from the Bible (Greek: παρὰ δὲ θεῷ πάντα δυνατά, para de Theō panta dynata).

[10] Driver's licenses and identification cards issued since 2019, including those that comply with Real ID requirements, incorporate the motto into a faint watermark on the obverse side.

[13][14] Ohio is considered the successor to the Northwest Territory, whose seal bore the Latin motto Meliorem lapsa locavit, meaning "He has planted one better than the one fallen."

[28] In 1953, Representative Anna F. Heise O'Neil introduced a bill to designate a state motto in time for Ohio's sesquicentennial, but it was tabled.

[29] A 1957 proposal to place "Home of Light and Flight" on the seal would have celebrated Thomas Edison's birthplace in Milan and the Wright brothers' hometown of Dayton.

[30] The same year, State Senator Lowell Fess sponsored a bill backed by the Ohio American Legion that would have restored Imperium in Imperio.

[36] Although the motto is widely understood to come from Jesus' words in an encounter with a rich young man, Mastronardo told reporters that he simply proposed his mother's favorite saying, unaware of its Biblical origin.

[41] This display gave him the idea for a similar inscription of Ohio's motto on the Statehouse in Columbus, as part of a $110 million renovation project that was nearing completion.

[42] In November, the Capitol Square Review & Advisory Board decided to instead install a seal and motto on a plaza adjoining the Statehouse.

[2] On September 1, 1998, U.S. District Judge James L. Graham upheld the motto, finding it to be "generically theistic" without endorsing any particular denomination, but he enjoined the state from citing its source.

[44] However, the Council on American–Islamic Relations disputed this finding, citing verse 2:106 of the Quran,[45][46] while the World Vaisnava Association objected on the basis of Hindu scriptures.

[51][52] On March 16, 2001, after an en banc review, the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Graham's ruling 9–4, leaving the motto in place.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Gilbert S. Merritt, Jr., expressed skepticism that the state fully intended to separate religious meaning from these words.

[2] Besides Ohio, several other states, territories, and cities refer to God on their seals without quoting the Bible: The coat of arms of Puerto Rico bears the motto Joannes est nomen ejus, meaning "John is his name".

[55] Likewise, the reverse of Maryland's seal bears the motto, Scuto bonæ voluntatis tuæ coronasti nos, from Psalms 5:12, meaning "With favor Wilt Thou Compass Us as with a Shield".