It is a motto that certainly captures the Olympic ideal from the athletes' perspective, but for the organising committees of subsequent games, 'auctus, Auctus, AUCTUS' (growth, Growth, GROWTH') may have been more appropriate.
De Coubertin's committee got things off to a flying start, because the games of the 1st Olympiad in 1896 had the biggest international participation of any sporting event to that date, and the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens hosted what was, at the end of the 19th century, the biggest ever crowd to attend a sporting event - around 80,000 people.
It also had the biggest ever budget for a sporting event - around £300,000, according to the Guinness Book of Olympic Facts and Feats (Guinness World Records, 1996), the equivalent of about £7.3 million today, if you adjust for inflation. Or, looked at another way, less than 10% of the budget for the London 2012 opening and closing ceremonies alone.
And that stratospheric escalation in cost is because, through the 20th century and into the 21st, the Olympics has been subjected to the drive for "bigger, Bigger, BIGGER" to such an extent that the scale of the games of the 30th Olympiad in London has become truly mind-boggling.
With 37 competition venues hosting 14,700 athletes, 21,000 media and broadcasters and over 10 million ticketholders, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is, in effect, 46 sporting world championships being held simultaneously. Indeed, if each event were held on a separate day, a '2012' Games would run from 1 January 2012 until 31 March 2013.
By the end of both London Games, 302 Olympic and 500 Paralympic gold medals will have awarded to the dedicated athletes who have been 'faster, higher, stronger', while four billion people around the world will have had the opportunity to ride the rollercoaster of emotions that truly make the Olympics 'the greatest show on Earth'.
But although all these statistics are impressive, one number in particular points to the games' potential long-term impact: 177,000.
Because to make the games happen will require a workforce of around 177,000 people - more than a third of whom (70,000) will be volunteers - fulfilling a range of customer service and support roles: the people checking tickets and guiding spectators around the venues, the drivers ferrying athletes and officials about, the medical teams providing first aid to competitors and spectators, the catering teams who will serve over 14 million meals, the cleaners who will keep the venues spick and span, and the small army of individuals who will support the athletes, coaches and officials by ensuring that they have the equipment and resources they need to perform at their very best.
All of them have a crucial role to play in ensuring the success of London 2012 and I hope their contribution will be properly recognised and celebrated when the games are over.
I say that because much has been made in the run-up to the games of the 'legacy' that will be left behind: the regeneration of the area around the Olympic Park; the infrastructure and facilities; the passion for sport it will instil in a generation of young people; the jobs it will create and the skills it will develop. All of which are valuable, and all of which I am confident will be delivered.
But for me, the greatest legacy the games could leave us with is the realisation that greatness can only be built on firm foundations, foundations that are created by people doing the sorts of jobs our society so often ignores or looks down on.
As Sir Isaac Newton famously responded when complimented on his outstanding achievements, 'if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants'.
So it is my hope that as we celebrate the competitors at London 2012 for being faster, higher and stronger than ever before, we also celebrate the team of 177,000 who are underpinning their achievements. Because I believe these will be the true giants of the Games of the 30th Olympiad.
