The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto.
An inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City reads:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.It derives from a quote from Herodotus' Histories, referring to the courier service of the ancient Persian Empire:
It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed. —Herodotus, Histories (8.98) (trans. A.D. Godley, 1924)In 2001, the USPS created a television commercial edited to Carly Simon's song "Let the River Run". The commercial, which ran after the September 11, 2001, attacks and the anthrax mailings, featured no voice over, only the following text interspersed on title cards. A portion of this variation also appeared without citation in the USPS 2001 Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations (1.A-1):
We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever.The "creed" is also quoted in the lyrics of the 1981 Laurie Anderson single, "O Superman," and in the 1997 film The Postman, starring Kevin Costner.
In Adventures in Odyssey, the character Wooton Bassett said the mailman's motto is:
Rain or shine, snow or sleet, we deliver your mail! (But sunny days are optional...)In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Going Postal, the motto for the Ankh-Morpork Post Office is very similar, reading "Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night can stay these messengers about their duty."
The creed is mentioned in the Seinfeld episode "The Calzone."
The creed is said by a mail carrier in the Arthur episode "What's Cooking? / Buster's Special Delivery".
A variation of this creed is part of the lyrics of the Motown hit song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", which was done as a duet by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1967 and by Diana Ross in 1970.
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, postal, service and/or creed:
“I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“... while one-half of the people of the United States are robbed of their inherent right of personal representation in this freest country on the face of the globe, it is idle for us to expect that the men who thus rob women will not rob each other as individuals, corporations and Government.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“none
Thought of the others they would never meet
Or how their lives would all contain this hour.
I thought of London spread out in the sun,
Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat:”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1985)
“Finally, your lengthy service ended,
Lay your weariness beneath my laurel tree.”
—Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65–8)
“I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)