From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Many
sundials bear a
motto
[a] 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.
[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.
Latin mottos
Time flies
- Hora fugit, ne tardes. (The hour flees, do not be late.)
[11]
- Ruit hora. (The hour is flowing away.)
[11]
- Tempus breve est. (Time is short.)
[11]
-
Tempus fugit [velut umbra]. (Time flees [like a shadow].)
[11]
[12]
- Tempus volat, hora fugit. (Time flies, the hour flees.)
[11]
Make use of time
- 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]
Human mortality
- 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]
Transience
- 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]
Virtue
- 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]
Living
- 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]
Humorous
- 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.)
German mottos
- Mach' es wie die Sonnenuhr; Zähl' die heitren Stunden nur! (Do like a sundial; count only the sunny hours!)
References
Notes
-
^ The plural of motto may be either mottoes or mottos.
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
- ^
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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
Bibliography
Further reading
- Boursier, C (1936). 800 Devises de cadrans solaires (in French). Paris.
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
- Cross, L (1915). the Book of Old Sundials. illustrated by W Hogg. London:
Foulis Press.
-
Gatty, Mrs Alfred; Eden, HKF; Lloyd, E (1900).
The Book of Sun-Dials (4th ed.). London:
George Bell & Sons.
- 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.
Links