Inveniam viam

“Aut inveniam viam aut faciam” is Latin for “I shall either find a way or make one.” [citation|title=A New Dictionary of Quotations from the Greek, Latin, and Modern Languages|publisher=J.B. Lippincott & Co.|year=1869|page=229] [citation|title=A Literary Manual of Foreign Quotations, Ancient and Modern|first=John Devoe|last=Belton|year=1890|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|page=18] [citation|title=The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations|publisher=Routledge|first=Jon R.|last=Stone|year=2004|page=140.] The first word "aut" may be omitted, corresponding to omitting the English word "either" from the translation.This sentence has been attributed to Hannibal; when his generals told him it was impossible to cross the Alps by elephant, this was supposedly his response. However, Hannibal would have spoken in Punic, not Latin. The first part of the sentence, "inveniam viam", "I shall find a way," also appears in other contexts in the tragedies of Seneca, spoken by Hercules and by Oedipus, and in Seneca's "Hercules Furens" (Act II, Scene 1, line 276) the whole sentence appears, in third person: "inveniet viam, aut faciet."

This sentence has also been frequently used as a motto; for instance, it was used in this way by Francis Bacon, [citation|title=Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man|publisher=J. Bartlett|year=1850|page=xii|first1=Thomas|last1=Reid|authorlink1=Thomas Reid|first2=James|last2=Walker|first3=William|last3=Hamilton.] and is now used in this way by the Holton-Arms School and by Combat Logistics Battalion 24 in the United States Marine Corps. A painting in the National Portrait Gallery, likely of Sir Philip Sidney, is adorned with this phrase. [citation|title=Sidney's Appearance: A Study in Elizabethan Portraiture|first=Alexander Corbin|last=Judson|publisher=Ayer Publishing|year=1971|page=59.] In "The Dunciad", Alexander Pope writes of John Henley that he “turned his rhetoric to buffoonry” by handing out medallions engraved with this motto. [citation|title=The Works of Alexander Pope|first=Alexander|last=Pope|authorlink=Alexander Pope|year=1736|publisher=L. Gilliver and J. Clarke|pages=206–208.]

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