Scientia potentia est A Sponti (Außerparlamentarische Opposition) version of the slogan is "Wissen ist Macht, nichts wissen, macht auch nichts", a pun about the previous motto along the line "Knowledge is power, but being ignorant doesn't bother anyway". Joschka Fischer and Daniel Cohn-Bendit belong to those Spontis that nevertheless held powerful positions, in Fischer's case with no more formal education than a taxi driver's licence. The German Bundeswehr Bataillon Elektronische Kampfführung 932, an electronic warfare unit based in Frankenberg (Eder), still uses the Latin version "Scientia potentia est" as its motto. Though its meaning varies from author to author, the phrase often implies
De gustibus non est disputandum ancient Latin adage, i.e. Roman, and discussed by many philosophers and economists. The phrase is misquoted in Act I of Anton Chekhov's play "The Seagull". The character Shamrayev conflates it with the phrase "de mortuis nil nisi bonum" (in the alternate form: "de mortuis, aut bene aut nihil": "of the dead, either [speak] good or [say] nothing"), resulting in "de gustibus aut bene, aut nihil", "Let nothing be said of taste but what is good." De gustibus non est disputandum De gustibus non est disputandum, or de gustibus non disputandum est, is a Latin maxim meaning "In matters of taste,