United States Postal Service creed

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The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto. Often falsely cited as such, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is merely an inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City, derived from a quote from Herodotus' Histories (8.98), referring to the ancient courier service of the 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. (trans. A.D. Godley 1924)

In 2001, the USPS briefly embraced this unofficial motto with a stirring television advertisement. In the weeks following the September 11 attacks, the Postal Service itself had been battered by mailings of powdered anthrax, which claimed the lives of two postal employees and three other Americans, infected 17 others, and caused closings of several postal facilities.

In response, the USPS created a television commercial edited to Carly Simon's soaring anthem, "Let The River Run."^[1] The commercial featured no voiceover, only the following text interspersed on title cards:

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.^[2]

The "creed" is also quoted in the lyrics of the 1981 Laurie Anderson single, "O Superman".^[3]