List of sundial mottos

Many sundials bear a motto^[a] to reflect the sentiments of its maker or owner.

English mottos[edit]

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.^[1]
Hours fly, Flowers die. New days, New ways, Pass by. Love stays.^[2]
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.^[3]^[4]
Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.^[4]^[5]
Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow^[6]
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^[7]
Time Takes All But Memories^[8]
Some tell of storms and showers, I tell of sunny hours.^[9]
Order in the court!^[10]^{[citation needed]}
Like true firemen, I am always ready.

Altera pars otio, pars ista labori. (Devote this [hour] to work, another to leisure.)^[11]
Festina lente. (Make haste, but slowly.)^[11]
[Fugit hora] – carpe diem. ([The hour flees] – seize the day.)^[11]
Utere, non numera. (Use [the hours], do not count [them].)^[11]
Utere non reditura. (Use that [hour] which will not return.)^[11]

Ex iis unam cave. (Beware of one [hour] out of these.)^[11]
Lente hora, celeriter anni. (An hour [passes] slowly, but the years [pass] quickly.)^[11]
Meam vide umbram, tuam videbis vitam. (Look at my shadow and you will see your life.)^[11]
Memor esto brevis ævi. (Be mindful of brief life.)^[11]
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].)^[13]
Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat. (All [hours] wound; the last kills.)^[11]
[Pulvis et] umbra sumus. (We are [dust and] shadow.)^[14]
Serius est quam cogitas. (It is later than you think.)^[11]
Sic labitur ætas. (Thus passes a lifetime.)^[11]
Sic vita fluit, dum stare videtur. (Life flows away as it seems to stay the same.)^[11]
Ultima latet ut observentur omnes. (The last [hour] is hidden so that we watch them all.)^[11]
Umbra sicut hominis vita. (A person's life is like a shadow.)^[11]
Una ex his erit tibi ultima. (One of these [hours] will be your last.)^[11]
Ver non semper viret. (Spring is not always in bloom.)^[11]
Vita fugit, sicut umbra (Life passes like the shadow.)
Vita similis umbræ. (Life resembles a shadow.)^[11]

Tempus edax rerum. (Time devours things.)^[11]
Tempus vincit omnia. (Time conquers everything.)^[11]
Vidi nihil permanere sub sole. (I have seen that nothing under the sun endures.)^[11]^[15]

Dum tempus habemus operemur bonum. (While we have time, let us do good.)^[11]
Omnes æquales sola virtute discrepantes. (All [hours] are the same; they are distinguished only by virtue.)^[11]

Amicis qualibet hora. (Any hour for my friends.)^[11]
Dona præsentis cape lætus horæ [ac linque severe]. (Take the gifts of this hour joyfully [and leave them sternly].)^[11]^[16]
Fruere hora. (Enjoy the hour.)^[11]
Post tenebras spero lucem. (I hope for light to follow darkness.)^[11]
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.)^[11]
Tempus omnia dabit. (Time will give all.)^[11]
Una dabit quod negat altera. (One [hour] will give what another has refused.)^[11]
Vita in motu. (Life [is] in motion.)^[11]
Vivere memento. (Remember to live.)^[11]

Horas non numero nisi æstivas. (I do not count the hours unless they are in summer.)^[17]
Horas non numero nisi serenas. (I do not count the hours unless they are sunny.)
Nunc est bibendum. (Now is the time to drink.)^[18]
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.)

Mach' es wie die Sonnenuhr; Zähl' die heitren Stunden nur! (Do like a sundial; count only the sunny hours!)

Notes

Footnotes

^ From Robert Browning's poem Rabbi ben Ezra
^ From Henry van Dyke's Inscription for Katrina's Sun-Dial
^ From Oliver Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village
^ ^a ^b Waugh, Albert E. (1973). Sundials: their theory and construction. New York: Dover Publications. p. 124. ISBN 0486229475.
^ From Isaac Watts' hymn Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
^ File:Morehead_Planetarium_Sundial.JPG
^ From a sundial at Wallingtons House, Kintbury, Berkshire
^ Shown at the end of S2E7 of the TV show Dead Like Me
^ Inscribed on a sundial at Georges River College, Peakhurst and in Hyde Park, Sydney.
^ From a sundial outside of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in Middlesex Guildhall, Parliament Square, London, England
^ ^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, René R. J. (1996). Sundials : history, theory, and practice. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 127–129. ISBN 0486291391.
^ "Tempus Fugit Velut Umbra". Archived from the original on October 15, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
^ Martial, Epigrams, book V, ode xx, line 13
^ Horace, Odes, Book IV, ode vii, line 16
^ Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) Chapter 2, verse 11
^ Horace, Odes, Book III, ode iix, line 27
^ Probably unique to the William Willett memorial in Petts Wood, England, which shows British Summer Time
^ Horace, Odes, Book I, ode xxxvii, line 1

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.