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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.
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].)
Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat. (All [hours] wound; the last kills.)
[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.)

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

Earle, AM (1971). Sundials and Roses of Yesterday. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN 0-8048-0968-2. LCCN 74142763. Reprint of 1902 book published by Macmillan (New York).
Rohr, RRJ (1996). Sundials: History, Theory, and Practice. translated by G. Godin. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-29139-1. 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).
Cadran Solaires. Nyons: Artissime. 1988. Selections from the 1895 paper by Raphaël Blanchard in the Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes des Hautes-Alpes.