List of sundial mottos
Sundials are often provided with a motto[1] to reflect the sentiments of its maker or owner.
English mottos
- Come along and grow old with me; the best is yet to be.
- Let others tell of storms and showers, I tell of sunny morning hours.
- Life is but a shadow: the shadow of a bird on the wing.
- Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.[2]
- Self-dependent power can time defy, as rocks resist the billows and the sky.[2]
- Be as true to each other as this dial is to the sun.
- Hours fly, Flowers die. New days, New ways, Pass by. Love stays.
Latin mottos
Time flies
- Tempus fugit. (Time flies.)[3]
- Tempus breve est. (Time is short.)[3]
- Ruit hora. (The hour is flowing away.)[3]
- Tempus volat, hora fugit. (Time is on the wing, the hour flies.)[3]
- Hora fugit, ne tardes. (The hour flies, don't be late.)[3]
Make use of time
- Carpe diem (Seize the day.)[3]
- Fugit hora - carpe diem. ( The hour flies — seize the day.)
- Festina lente. (Make haste, but slowly.)[3]
- Utere non reditura. (Use the hour, it will not come again.)[3]
- Utere, non numera. (Use the hours, don't count them.)[3]
- Altera pars otio, pars ista labori. (Devote this hour to work, another to leisure.)[3]
Human mortality
Pereunt et Imputantur, on St Buryan Church in Cornwall
- Vita fugit, sicut umbra (Life passes like the shadow.)
- Vita similis umbrae. (Life resembles a shadow.)[3]
- Umbra sicut hominis vita. (A person's life is like a shadow.)[3]
- Meam vide umbram, tuam videbis vitam. (Look at my shadow and you will see your life.)[3]
- Memor esto brevis aevi. (Remember how short is life.)[3]
- Ex iis unam cave. (Beware of one hour.)[3]
- Una ex his erit tibi ultima. (One of these hours will be your last.)[3]
- Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat. (All hours wound; the last one kills.)[3]
- Serius est quam cogitas. (It's later than you think.)[3]
- Sic labitur aetas. (Thus passes a lifetime.)[3]
- Lente hora, celeriter anni. (An hour passes slowly, but the years go by quickly.)[3]
- Ultima latet ut observentur omnes. (Our last hour is hidden from us, so that we watch them all.)[3]
- Ver non semper viret. (Springtime does not last.)[3]
- Sic vita fluit, dum stare videtur. (Life flows away as it seems to stay the same.)[3]
- Pereunt et Imputantur. (The hours are consumed and will be charged to our account)
Transience
- Tempus edax rerum. (Time devours things.)[3]
- Tempus vincit omnia. (Time conquers everything.)[3]
- Vidi nihil permanere sub sole. (I have seen that nothing under the sun endures. — a quote from Ecclesiastes (Kohelet).[3]
Virtue
- Omnes aequales sola virtute discrepantes. (All hours are the same — they are distinguished only by good deeds.)[3]
- Dum tempus habemus operemur bonum. (While we have time, let us do good.)[3]
Living
- Sol omnibus lucet. (The sun shines for everyone.)[3]
- Sempre amicis hora (Always time for friends.)
- Amicis qualibet hora. (Any hour for my friends.)[3]
- Vita in motu (Life is in motion.)[3] - Houghton Hall Norfolk England - image here
- Vivere momento. (Remember to live.)[3]
- Fruere hora. (Enjoy the hour.)[3]
- Dona praesentis cape laetus horae. (Take the gifts of this hour.)[3]
- Tempus omnia dabit. (Time will give everything.)[3]
- Una dabit quod negat altera. (One hour will give what another has refused.)[3]
- Post tenebras spero lucem. (I hope for light to follow darkness.)[3]
- Sit fausta quae labitur. (May the hour be favorable.)
Humorous
- Horas non numero nisi serenas (I count only the happy hours)
- Horas non numero nisi aestivas (I count only the summer hours)[4]
- Nunc est bibendum (Now is the time to drink)[5]
- Si sol deficit, respicit me nemo. (If the sun's gone, nobody looks at me)
- Sine sole sileo. (Without the Sun I fall silent.)
Mottos in other languages
- Mach' es wie die Sonnenuhr: zähl' die heitren Stunden nur! (Do like a sundial and count only the sunny hours!)
References
- ^ The plural of motto may be either mottoes or mottos.
- ^ a b Waugh (1973), p. 124
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak Rohr (1965), p. 127–129
- ^ Probably unique to the William Willett memorial in Petts Wood, England which shows Summer Time
- ^ Horace's Odes (book I, ode xxxvii, line 1)
Bibliography
- Earle AM (1971). Sundials and Roses of Yesterday. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN 0-8048-0968-2,. LCCN 74142763. Reprint of the 1902 book published by Macmillan (New York).
- Rohr RRJ (1996). Sundials: History, Theory, and Practice (translated by G. Godin ed.). New York: Dover. 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 under the title Les Cadrans solaires by Gauthier-Villars (Montrouge, France).
- Cadran Solaires. 32 bis Route de Montélimar, F26110 Nyons: Artissime. c1988. Selections from the 1895 paper Raphaël BLANCHARD in Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes des Hautes-Alpes.
Further reading
- Boursier C (1936). 800 Devises de cadrans solaires. Paris: Unknown publisher.
- Cross L (1915). the Book of Old Sundials (illustrated by W Hogg ed.). London: Foulis.
- Mrs. Alfred Gatty (1900). The Book of Sun-Dials (4th ed., enlarged and edited by HKF Eden and E Lloyd ed.). London: George Bell.
- Hyatt AH (1903). A Book of Sundial Mottoes. New York: Scott-Thaw.
- Landon P (1904). Helio-tropes, or new Posies for Sundials. London: Methuen.
- Leadbetter C (1773). Mechanick Dialling. London: Caslon.
