List of sundial mottoes

Sundials are often provided with a motto [The plural of "motto" may be either "mottoes" or "mottos".] to reflect the sentiments of its maker or owner.

English mottoes

* Come along and grow old with me; the best is yet to be.
* Let others tell of storms and showers; I mark only the sunny hours.
* Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.Waugh (1973), p. 124]
* Self-dependent power can time defy, as rocks resist the billows and the sky.

Latin mottoes

Time flies

* "Tempus fugit." (Time flies.)
* "Tempus breve est." (Time is short.)
* "Ruit hora." (The hour is flowing away.)
* "Tempus volat, hora fugit." (Time is on the wing, the hour flies.)
* "Hora fugit, ne tardes." (The hour flies, don't be late.)

Make use of time

* "Carpe diem." (Seize the day.)Rohr (1965), p. 127–129]
* "Fugit hora - carpe diem." ( The hour flies — seize the day.)
* "Festina lente." (Make haste, but slowly.)
* "Utere non reditura." (Use the hour, it will not come again.)
* "Utere, non numera." (Use the hours, don't count them.)
* "Altera pars otio, pars ista labori." (Devote this hour to work, another to leisure.)

Human mortality

* "Vita fugit, sicut umbra" (Life passes like the shadow.)
* "Vita similis umbrae." (Life resembles a shadow.)
* "Umbra sicut hominis vita." (A person's life is like a shadow.)
* "Meam vide umbram, tuam videbis vitam." (Look at my shadow and you will see your life.)
* "Memor esto brevis aevi." (Remember how short is life.)
* "Ex iis unam cave." (Beware of one hour.)
* "Una ex his erit tibi ultima." (One of these hours will be your last.)
* "Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat." (All hours wound; the last one kills.)
* "Serius est quam cogitas." (It's later than you think.)
* "Sic labitur aetas." (Thus passes a lifetime.)
* "Lente hora, celeriter anni." (An hour passes slowly, but the years go by quickly.)
* "Ultima latet ut observentur omnes." (Our last hour is hidden from us, so that we watch them all.)
* "Ver non semper viret." (Springtime does not last.)
* "Sic vita fluit, dum stare videtur." (Life flows away as it seems to stay the same.)
* "Pereunt et Imputantur." (The hours are consumed and will be charged to our account) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
]

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. — a quote from Ecclesiastes (Kohelet).

Virtue

* "Omnes aequales sola virtute discrepantes." (All hours are the same — they are distinguished only by good deeds.)
* "Dum tempus habemus operemur bonum." (While we have time, let us do good.)

Living

* "Sol omnibus lucet." (The sun shines for everyone.)
* "Sempre amicis hora" (Always time for friends.)
* "Amicis qualibet hora." (Any hour for my friends.)
* "Vita in motu" (Life is in motion.) - Houghton Hall Norfolk England - image here
* "Vivere momento." (Remember to live.)
* "Fruere hora." (Enjoy the hour.)
* "Dona praesentis rape laetus horae." (Take the gifts of this hour.)
* "Tempus omnia dabit." (Time will give everything.)
* "Una dabit quod negat altera." (One hour will give what another has refused.)
* "Post tenebras spero lucem." (I hope for light to follow darkness.)
* "Sit fausta quae labitur." (May the hour be favorable.)
* "Hours fly, Flowers die. New days, New ways, Pass by. Love stays."

Humorous

* "Si sol deficit, respicit me nemo." (If the sun's gone, nobody looks at me.)
* "Horas non numero nisi serenas." (I count only the happy hours.)
* "Sine sole sileo." (Without the Sun I fall silent.)

Mottoes in other languages

* "Mach' es wie die Sonnenuhr: zähl' die heitren Stunden nur!" (Do like a sundial and count only the happy hours!)

References

Bibliography

* Reprint of the 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 under the title "Les Cadrans solaires" by Gauthier-Villars (Montrouge, France).

* Selections from the 1895 paper Raphaël BLANCHARD in Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes des Hautes-Alpes.

Further reading

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