List of sundial 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.From Robert Browning's poem Rabbi ben Ezra
• Hours fly, Flowers die. New days, New ways, Pass by. Love stays.From Henry van Dyke's Inscription for Katrina's Sun-Dial
• Hours fly, Flowers bloom and die. Old days, Old ways pass. Love stays.
• I only tell of sunny hours.
• I count only sunny hours.
• The clouds shall pass and the sun will shine on us once more.
• 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.From Oliver Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village{{cite book |last1=Waugh |first1=Albert E. |title=Sundials: their theory and construction |date=1973 |publisher=Dover Publications |location=New York |isbn=0486229475 |page=124}}
• Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.From Isaac Watts' hymn Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
• Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow:File:Morehead_Planetarium_Sundial.JPG
• When I am gone, mark not the passing of the hours, but just that love lives on.
• The Concern of the Rich and the PoorFrom a sundial at Wallingtons House, Kintbury, Berkshire
• Time Takes All But MemoriesShown at the end of S2E7 of the TV show Dead Like Me
• Some tell of storms and showers, I tell of sunny hours.Inscribed on a sundial at Georges River College, Peakhurst and in Hyde Park, Sydney.
• Order in the court!From a sundial outside of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in Middlesex Guildhall, Parliament Square, London, England{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
• Like true firemen, I am always ready.

• Hora fugit, ne tardes. (The hour flees, do not be late.){{cite book |last1=Rohr |first1=René R. J. |title=Sundials : history, theory, and practice |date=1996 |publisher=Dover Publications |location=New York |isbn=0486291391 |pages=127–129}}
• Ruit hora. (The hour is flowing away.)
• Tempus breve est. (Time is short.)
• Tempus fugit [velut umbra]. (Time flees [like a shadow].){{cite web|url=http://www.collectif-paysans.org/tournevis/?p%3D640 |access-date=July 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015211604/http://www.collectif-paysans.org/tournevis/?p=640 |archive-date=October 15, 2013 | title = Tempus Fugit Velut Umbra }}
• Tempus volat, hora fugit. (Time flies, the hour flees.)

• 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.)

File:StBuryan Sundial.jpg's Pereunt et Imputantur on St Buryan's parish church, Cornwall]]

File:"Umbra Sumus" sundial - geograph.org.uk - 321257.jpg's Umbra Sumus on Brick Lane Mosque, London]]

• 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].)Martial, Epigrams, book V, ode xx, line 13
• Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat. (All [hours] wound; the last kills.)
• [Pulvis et] umbra sumus. (We are [dust and] shadow.)Horace, Odes, Book IV, ode vii, line 16
• 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.)

• 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.)Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) Chapter 2, verse 11

• 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.)

File:Vizcaya Sun Dial.JPG, Miami, Florida]]

File:Houghton Hall Norfolk UK 4-face sundial.jpg, Norfolk, England]]

• 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].)Horace, Odes, Book III, ode iix, line 27
• 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.)

• Horas non numero nisi æstivas. (I do not count the hours unless they are in summer.)Probably unique to the William Willett memorial in Petts Wood, England, which shows British Summer Time
• Horas non numero nisi serenas. (I do not count the hours unless they are sunny.)
• Nunc est bibendum. (Now is the time to drink.)Horace, Odes, Book I, ode xxxvii, line 1
• 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

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Footnotes

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• {{cite book |last=Earle |first=AM |year=1971 |title=Sundials and Roses of Yesterday |place=Rutland, VT |publisher=Charles E. Tuttle |isbn=0-8048-0968-2 |lccn=74142763 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sundialsrosesofy0000earl }} Reprint of 1902 book published by Macmillan (New York).
• {{cite book |last=Rohr |first=RRJ |year=1996 |title=Sundials: History, Theory, and Practice |others=translated by G. Godin |place=New York |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=0-486-29139-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sundialshistoryt0000rohr }} 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).
• {{cite book |date=1988 |title=Cadran Solaires |place=Nyons |publisher=Artissime }} Selections from the 1895 paper by Raphaël Blanchard in the Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes des Hautes-Alpes.

• {{cite book |last=Boursier |first=C |year=1936 |title=800 Devises de cadrans solaires |place=Paris |language=fr}}
• {{cite book |last=Cross |first=L |year=1915 |title=the Book of Old Sundials |others=illustrated by W Hogg |place=London |publisher=Foulis Press}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gatty |first1=Mrs Alfred |author-link=Margaret Gatty |last2=Eden |first2=HKF |last3=Lloyd |first3=E |year=1900 |title=The Book of Sun-Dials |url=https://archive.org/details/booksundials00gattgoog |edition=4th |place=London |publisher=George Bell & Sons}}
• {{cite book |last=Hyatt |first=AH |year=1903 |title=A Book of Sundial Mottoes |publisher=Scott-Thaw |place=New York}}
• {{cite book |last=Landon |first=P |author-link=Perceval Landon |year=1904 |title=Helio-tropes, or new Posies for Sundials |place=London |publisher=Methuen}}
• {{cite book |last=Leadbetter |first=C |year=1773 |title=Mechanick Dialling |place=London |publisher=Caslon}}

{{commons category|Sundial mottos}}

Sundials

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Sundial mottos

Sundial mottos