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
Radix malorum est cupiditas desire, inordinate longing or lust; covetousness", placing the weight firmly on the lecherous side of the reference of this word, which came into our language from Latin, and perhaps through French. That its biblical reference is to the desire of filthy lucre seems established, but to the Latin-literate medieval people the other cultural reference, to the desires of the flesh, must have been an alternative meaning. Radix malorum est cupiditas Radix malorum est cupiditas is a Biblical quotation in Latin that means "greed is the root of evil" (or, in sentence order, the root of evil is greed). This Latin