"Suum cuique" (Classical Latin:[ˈsʊ.ũːˈkui̯kᶣɛ]), or "Unicuique suum", is a Latin phrase often translated as "to each his own" or "may all get their due." Suum cuique has been significant in the history of philosophy and as a motto.
The English phrase "to each his own [deserts]" (suum cuique) is not to be confused with the similar phrase "each to his own [tastes]" (chacun à son goût), which corresponds more closely to the Latin de gustibus non est disputandum.
History
Antiquity
The Latin phrase relates to an old Greek principle of justice which translates into English as "to each his own". Plato, in Republic, offers the provisional definition that "justice is when everyone minds his own business, and refrains from meddling in others' affairs" (Greek: "...τὸ τὰ αὑτοῦ πράττειν καὶ μὴ πολυπραγμονεῖν δικαιοσύνη ἐστί...", 4.433a). Everyone should do according to his abilities and capabilities, to serve the country and the society as a whole. Also, everyone should receive "his own" (e.g., rights) and not be deprived of "his own" (e.g., property) (433e).
The Roman author, orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC) popularised the Latin phrase:
"Iustitia suum cuique distribuit." ("Justice renders to everyone his due.") – De Natura Deorum, III, 38.
[...] ut fortitudo in laboribus periculisque cernatur, [...], iustitia in suo cuique tribuendo." (" [...] so that fortitude (courage) may be seen in hardship and danger, [...], justice in attributing to each his own".) – De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, liber V, 67.
The phrase appears near the beginning of Justinian'sInstitutiones: iuris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere. (Inst. 1,1,3-4). (Translated into English: "the precepts of law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, [and] to give to each his own".)
Valentin Pikul's 1985 novel on the career of the French General Jean Victor Moreau (1763–1813), Kazhdomu svoyo, uses as its title a Russian translation of "suum cuique."
Snaut, one of the characters in Stanislaw Lem's science fiction novel Solaris, uses the phrase in conversation with the character Kelvin.
^"Wir über uns". Johannis-Loge – Zum schwarzen Adler – Freimaurer Berlin (in German). Johannis-Loge. 2013. Retrieved 2016-07-22. Suum Cuique [...] Die Gründer unserer Loge haben sowohl den Namen unserer Loge als auch ihr Logenabzeichen, das so genannte Bijou und unser Siegel, dem alten preußischen 'Hohen Orden vom Schwarzen Adler' nachempfunden. [...] Der Wahlspruch des Ordens lautete 'suum cuique' lat. für 'Jedem das seine' und bedeutet soviel wie Recht und Gerechtigkeit üben und jedem das Seine zu geben.[...] Dies ist auch unser Anspruch und der Leitgedanke der unsere Arbeit bestimmen soll.