List of sundial mottos explained

Many sundials bear a motto to reflect the sentiments of its maker or owner.

English mottos

• Be as true to each other as this dial is to the sun.
• Begone about Thy business.
• Come along and grow old with me; the best is yet to be.^[1]
• Hours fly, Flowers die. New days, New ways, Pass by. Love stays.^[2]
• Hours fly, Flowers bloom and die. Old days, Old ways pass. Love stays.
• I only tell of sunny hours.
• I count only sunny hours.
• The clouds shall pass and the sun will shine on us once more.
• Let others tell of storms and showers, I tell of sunny morning hours.
• Let others tell of storms and showers, I'll only count your sunny hours. Has date of 1767
• Life is but a shadow: the shadow of a bird on the wing.
• Self-dependent power can time defy, as rocks resist the billows and the sky.^{[3] [4]}
• Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.^{[4] [5]}
• Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow^[6]
• When I am gone, mark not the passing of the hours, but just that love lives on.
• The Concern of the Rich and the Poor^[7]
• Time Takes All But Memories^[8]
• Some tell of storms and showers, I tell of sunny hours.^[9]
• Order in the court!^[10]
• Like true firemen, I am always ready.

Latin mottos

Time flies

• Hora fugit, ne tardes. (The hour flees, do not be late.)^[11]
• Ruit hora. (The hour is flowing away.)^[11]
• Tempus breve est. (Time is short.)^[11]
• Tempus fugit [velut umbra]. (Time flees [like a shadow].)^{[11] [12]}
• Tempus volat, hora fugit. (Time flies, the hour flees.)^[11]

Make use of time

• Altera pars otio, pars ista labori. (Devote this [hour] to work, another to leisure.)^[11]
• Festina lente. (Make haste, but slowly.)^[11]
• [Fugit hora] – carpe diem. ([The hour flees] – seize the day.)^[11]
• Utere, non numera. (Use [the hours], do not count [them].)^[11]
• Utere non reditura. (Use that [hour] which will not return.)^[11]

Human mortality

• Ex iis unam cave. (Beware of one [hour] out of these.)^[11]
• Lente hora, celeriter anni. (An hour [passes] slowly, but the years [pass] quickly.)^[11]
• Meam vide umbram, tuam videbis vitam. (Look at my shadow and you will see your life.)^[11]
• Memor esto brevis ævi. (Be mindful of brief life.)^[11]
• Mox nox. (Soon [it is] night.)
• Tuam nescis (You don't know your [time].)
• [Nobis] pereunt et imputantur. ([The hours] are consumed and will be charged [to our account].)^[13]
• Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat. (All [hours] wound; the last kills.)^[11]
• [Pulvis et] umbra sumus. (We are [dust and] shadow.)^[14]
• Serius est quam cogitas. (It is later than you think.)^[11]
• Sic labitur ætas. (Thus passes a lifetime.)^[11]
• Sic vita fluit, dum stare videtur. (Life flows away as it seems to stay the same.)^[11]
• Ultima latet ut observentur omnes. (The last [hour] is hidden so that we watch them all.)^[11]
• Umbra sicut hominis vita. (A person's life is like a shadow.)^[11]
• Una ex his erit tibi ultima. (One of these [hours] will be your last.)^[11]
• Ver non semper viret. (Spring is not always in bloom.)^[11]
• Vita fugit, sicut umbra (Life passes like the shadow.)
• Vita similis umbræ. (Life resembles a shadow.)^[11]

Transience

• Tempus edax rerum. (Time devours things.)^[11]
• Tempus vincit omnia. (Time conquers everything.)^[11]
• Vidi nihil permanere sub sole. (I have seen that nothing under the sun endures.)^{[11] [15]}

Virtue

• Dum tempus habemus operemur bonum. (While we have time, let us do good.)^[11]
• Omnes æquales sola virtute discrepantes. (All [hours] are the same; they are distinguished only by virtue.)^[11]

Living

• Amicis qualibet hora. (Any hour for my friends.)^[11]
• Dona præsentis cape lætus horæ [ac linque severe]. (Take the gifts of this hour joyfully [and leave them sternly].)^{[11] [16]}
• Fruere hora. (Enjoy the hour.)^[11]
• Post tenebras spero lucem. (I hope for light to follow darkness.)^[11]
• Semper amicis hora. (Always time for friends.)
• Sit fausta quæ labitur. (May that which passes be favorable.)
• Sol omnibus lucet. (The sun shines for all.)^[11]
• Tempus omnia dabit. (Time will give all.)^[11]
• Una dabit quod negat altera. (One [hour] will give what another has refused.)^[11]
• Vita in motu. (Life [is] in motion.)^[11]
• Vivere memento. (Remember to live.)^[11]

Humorous

• Horas non numero nisi æstivas. (I do not count the hours unless they are in summer.)^[17]
• Horas non numero nisi serenas. (I do not count the hours unless they are sunny.)
• Nunc est bibendum. (Now is the time to drink.)^[18]
• Si sol deficit, respicit me nemo. (If the sun is gone, nobody will look at me.)
• Sine sole sileo. (Without the sun I fall silent.)

German mottos

• Mach' es wie die Sonnenuhr; Zähl' die heitren Stunden nur! (Do like a sundial; count only the sunny hours!)

References

NotesFootnotes

Bibliography

• Book: Earle, AM . 1971 . Sundials and Roses of Yesterday . Rutland, VT . . 0-8048-0968-2 . 74142763 . registration . Reprint of 1902 book published by Macmillan (New York).
• Book: Rohr, RRJ . 1996 . Sundials: History, Theory, and Practice . translated by G. Godin . New York . . 0-486-29139-1 . registration . Slightly amended reprint of the 1970 translation published by University of Toronto Press, Toronto. The original was published in 1965 as Les Cadrans solaires by Gauthier-Villars (Montrouge, France).
• Book: 1988 . Cadran Solaires . Nyons . Artissime . Selections from the 1895 paper by Raphaël Blanchard in the Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes des Hautes-Alpes.

Further reading

• Book: Boursier, C . 1936 . 800 Devises de cadrans solaires . Paris . fr.
• Book: Cross, L . 1915 . the Book of Old Sundials . illustrated by W Hogg . London . Foulis Press.
• Book: Gatty . Mrs Alfred . Margaret Gatty . Eden . HKF . Lloyd . E . 1900 . The Book of Sun-Dials . 4th . London . George Bell & Sons.
• Book: Hyatt, AH . 1903 . A Book of Sundial Mottoes . Scott-Thaw . New York.
• Book: Landon, P . Perceval Landon . 1904 . Helio-tropes, or new Posies for Sundials . London . Methuen.
• Book: Leadbetter, C . 1773 . Mechanick Dialling . London . Caslon.

Notes and References

1. From Robert Browning's poem Rabbi ben Ezra
2. From Henry van Dyke's Inscription for Katrina's Sun-Dial
3. From Oliver Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village
4. Book: Waugh . Albert E. . Sundials: their theory and construction . 1973 . Dover Publications . New York . 0486229475 . 124.
5. From Isaac Watts' hymn Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
6. [:File:Morehead_Planetarium_Sundial.JPG]
7. From a sundial at Wallingtons House, Kintbury, Berkshire
8. Shown at the end of S2E7 of the TV show Dead Like Me
9. Inscribed on a sundial at Georges River College, Peakhurst and in Hyde Park, Sydney.
10. From a sundial outside of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in Middlesex Guildhall, Parliament Square, London, England
11. Book: Rohr . René R. J. . Sundials : history, theory, and practice . 1996 . Dover Publications . New York . 0486291391 . 127–129.
12. Web site: Tempus Fugit Velut Umbra . July 30, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131015211604/http://www.collectif-paysans.org/tournevis/?p=640 . October 15, 2013 .
13. [Martial]
14. [Horace]
15. [Ecclesiastes]
16. Horace, Odes, Book III, ode iix, line 27
17. Probably unique to the William Willett memorial in Petts Wood, England, which shows British Summer Time
18. Horace, Odes, Book I, ode xxxvii, line 1