List of sundial mottoes

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Sundials are often provided with a motto[1] to reflect the sentiments of its maker or owner.

Contents

[edit] 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.[2]
  • Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.[3]
  • Self-dependent power can time defy, as rocks resist the billows and the sky.[3]

[edit] Latin mottoes

[edit] Time flies

  • Tempus fugit. (Time flies.)[2]
  • Tempus breve est. (Time is short.)[2]
  • Ruit hora. (The hour is flowing away.)[2]
  • Tempus volat, hora fugit. (Time is on the wing, the hour flies.)[2]
  • Hora fugit, ne tardes. (The hour flies, don't be late.)[2]

[edit] Make use of time

  • Carpe diem. (Seize the day.)[2]
  • Fugit hora - carpe diem. ( The hour flies — seize the day.)
  • Festina lente. (Make haste, but slowly.)[2]
  • Utere non reditura. (Use the hour, it will not come again.)[2]
  • Utere, non numera. (Use the hours, don't count them.)[2]
  • Altera pars otio, pars ista labori. (Devote this hour to work, another to leisure.)[2]

[edit] Human mortality

  • Vita fugit, sicut umbra (Life passes like the shadow.)
  • Vita similis umbrae. (Life resembles a shadow.)[2]
  • Umbra sicut hominis vita. (A person's life is like a shadow.)[2]
  • Meam vide umbram, tuam videbis vitam. (Look at my shadow and you will see your life.)[2]
  • Memor esto brevis aevi. (Remember how short is life.)[2]
  • Ex iis unam cave. (Beware of one hour.)[2]
  • Una ex his erit tibi ultima. (One of these hours will be your last.)[2]
  • Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat. (All hours wound; the last one kills.)[2]
  • Serius est quam cogitas. (It's later than you think.)[2]
  • Sic labitur aetas. (Thus passes a lifetime.)[2]
  • Lente hora, celeriter anni. (An hour passes slowly, but the years go by quickly.)[2]
  • Ultima latet ut observentur omnes. (Our last hour is hidden from us, so that we watch them all.)[2]
  • Ver non semper viret. (Springtime does not last.)[2]
  • Sic vita fluit, dum stare videtur. (Life flows away as it seems to stay the same.)[2]

[edit] Transience

  • Tempus edax rerum. (Time devours things.)[2]
  • Tempus vincit omnia. (Time conquers everything.)[2]
  • Vidi nihil permanere sub sole. (I have seen that nothing under the sun endures. — a quote from Ecclesiastes (Kohelet).[2]

[edit] Virtue

  • Omnes aequales sola virtute discrepantes. (All hours are the same — they are distinguished only by good deeds.)[2]
  • Dum tempus habemus operemur bonum. (While we have time, let us do good.)[2]

[edit] Living

  • Sol omnibus lucet. (The sun shines for everyone.)[2]
  • Sempre amicis hora (Always time for friends.)
  • Amicis qualibet hora. (Any hour for my friends.)[2]
  • Vita in motu (Life is in motion.)[2] - Houghton Hall Norfolk England - image here
  • Vivere momento. (Remember to live.)[2]
  • Fruere hora. (Enjoy the hour.)[2]
  • Dona praesentis rape laetus horae. (Take the gifts of this hour.)[2]
  • Tempus omnia dabit. (Time will give everything.)[2]
  • Una dabit quod negat altera. (One hour will give what another has refused.)[2]
  • Post tenebras spero lucem. (I hope for light to follow darkness.)[2]
  • Sit fausta quae labitur. (May the hour be favorable.)
  • Hours fly, Flowers die. New days, New ways, Pass by. Love stays.

[edit] 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.)

[edit] Mottoes in other languages

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

[edit] References

  1. ^ The plural of motto may be either mottoes or mottos.
  2. ^ 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 al Rohr (1965), p. 127–129
  3. ^ a b Waugh (1973), p. 124

[edit] Bibliography

  • Earle AM (1971). Sundials and Roses of Yesterday. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN 0-8048-0968-2, LCCN 74-142763.  Reprint of the 1902 book published by Macmillan (New York).
  • Rohr RRJ (1996). Sundials: History, Theory, and Practice, translated by G. Godin, 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).
  • (c1988) Cadran Solaires. 32 bis Route de Montélimar, F26110 Nyons: Artissime.  Selections from the 1895 paper Raphaël BLANCHARD in Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes des Hautes-Alpes.

[edit] 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, London: Foulis. 
  • Mrs. Alfred Gatty (1900). The Book of Sun-Dials, 4th ed., enlarged and edited by HKF Eden and E Lloyd, 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.