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List of sundial mottos

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.
  • Hours fly, Flowers die. New days, New ways, Pass by. Love stays.
  • 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.
  • Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.
  • Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow
  • 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
  • Time Takes All But Memories
  • Some tell of storms and showers, I tell of sunny hours.
  • Order in the court!
  • Like true firemen, I am always ready.

Latin mottos

Time flies

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

Make use of time

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

Human mortality

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

Transience

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

Virtue

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

Living

  • Amicis qualibet hora. (Any hour for my friends.)
  • Dona præsentis cape lætus horæ [ac linque severe]. (Take the gifts of this hour joyfully [and leave them sternly].)
  • Fruere hora. (Enjoy the hour.)
  • Post tenebras spero lucem. (I hope for light to follow darkness.)
  • 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.)
  • Tempus omnia dabit. (Time will give all.)
  • Una dabit quod negat altera. (One [hour] will give what another has refused.)
  • Vita in motu. (Life [is] in motion.)
  • Vivere memento. (Remember to live.)

Humorous

  • Horas non numero nisi æstivas. (I do not count the hours unless they are in summer.)
  • Horas non numero nisi serenas. (I do not count the hours unless they are sunny.)
  • Nunc est bibendum. (Now is the time to drink.)
  • 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

Notes

Footnotes

Bibliography

  • Reprint of 1902 book published by Macmillan (New York).
  • 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).
  • Selections from the 1895 paper by Raphaël Blanchard in the Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes des Hautes-Alpes.

Further reading

Links