Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

--Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem selected by Harold Bryan Crosby, the founding president of The University of West Florida, inspired the university seal. The University's colors, blue and green, symbolize the sky and the sea, the vast knowledge that humankind has explored and the future yet to be conquered.