Mottoes - The Great Sundial Motto Festival

In August and September of 1998 Tony Moss instigated "The Great Sundial Motto Festival". The following were the entries submitted for this event. If you find your motto here but would like it removed just let me know and it will be gone.

Paul Murphy

Dial! Mark the sweeter hours;
Only sunshine, not the showers.

Silent falls the shade -
Hours pass, ephemeral -
Forever awaits.

George L. McDowell, Jr.

I show you God's time:
Not man's artificial scheme
which man's law demands.

Precious summers run
More orderly o'er my face
Than meets untrained eye.

If you would kill time,
Know as summer follows spring,
The favor's returned.

When did time begin?
It ever was: Was the time
When there was no time?

"Where does the time go?"
Garcia asked with straight face.
Where did Jerry go?

You, God blest with eye,
What see you within my face,
I ask, Beholder?

Suffer time's result.
Whip its waves, curse its arrows:
Play into its strength.

Shadows cross my face
Whereon lines remain constant.
Count yours, fall to fall.

Time is on my side.
A glorious partnership
'Til she changes sides.

Einstein! If you're right,
What'll you think of next time,
It time's circular?

Time's savage result
Can only be forgiven,
As it takes so long.

Count hours with me,
Days, seasons, years to come.
These are all we have.

I have time for you.
Fine treasures will be yours when
You make time for me.

Check your silly watch
To see how much off I am:
That's how much you're off.

I show the sun's paths.
At noon my shadow's longest
When springtime's ended.

I'm at the mercy of the clouds on high
Imagine being governed by the sky!

Although contained within this smallish place,
I'm at the mercy of a star in space.

Such wisdom that upon my face does sit
Is thine if thou brief study would commit.

David Higgon

A Man grows wrinkled
Passing hours show on his face
A Dial - Immortal

Andrew James

Though while there's cloud I'll rest, and all night sleep,
When bright SUN lights me, then true time I'll keep.

The Earth's daily spin
And perennial orbit
Are shown to you here

The shadow lengthens
As day gives way to evening
And year to winter

I show the sun's path
And each hour that it traces
Will never return

Each hour I record
Imperceptibly reminds
How few are your years

The cloudiest hours
Are brighter than summer noon
When lightened by love

The shorter shadow
Of summer's welcome sunshine
Denotes longer days

I am a sundial: Solar Time I show
Add the Equation for Watch Fast or Slow!

Amor stet dum terra volvitur
"May love stand constant while the world turns"

Prodigere noli quod tuum vastabit
"Waste not what will waste you"

Where light meets shade
Now, where inexorably
Future turns to past

These hours remain now for today,
But as for you I cannot say

Light rules me
But Time rules all things

Lumen me, sed tempus omnia, regit

Pete Swanstrom

Behold, my shadow...
eternally temporal,
ephemeral still.

Alberto Nicelli

Sweep your clouds away
Time to enjoy is forever today

Shines out the Sun
Here walks the shade!
It's just for fun
Time is a tale!

Uncle John

I am a sundial
I always tell the right time.
I say it is NOW!

Tell me, my sundial
my place in the universe.
Who cares about time?

Jim Morrison

Stop for a minute.
Stop and enjoy the sun.
Time passes too fast.

Mac Oglesby

Upon this lined face,
Should shadow and sunlight meet,
Celebrate that hour!

The lines on this dial may seem quite askew,
The gnomon's shadow may cross one or two,
But if hours 'til sunset is what you need,
The shadow's tippy tip is what you read.

P. R. Field

Visit with me thru the day,
I will count the hours,
Nightfall steals the time away,
In shadows, as do showers.
Venture not to change the past,
It's futile effort made,
Light the dial your,
Life is cast,
As parts of light and shade.
(c) 1998 P. Field

David R. Gagnon

"Find the Time"

Tad Dunne

On September One, you can trust the sun
Come Halloween, subtract sixteen
On Christmas day, the dial's OK
For your Valentine true, add a dozen or two.

Add no more, the mid of month four.
The mid of May, take four away.
On June fourteen, don't add a bean.
When August begins, add seven little mins,

The rest is easy: For any date
All you do is interpolate.

Mike Blackwell

Chill wind parts the clouds,
Light and shadow meet:
Only now know I the time!

Thibaud Taudin-Chabot

Thought produced time
No thought
No time?

Steve Murray

Equinox and Solstice, it can show,
analemma and season, if you wish to know,
displays sunny time, but even more,
most folk are not aware, of that lore.

Wm. S. Maddux

"Heed also the shadows, which inform the light."

Ginny Brandmaier

Where ere man goes,
and quests for time -
The Shadow knows.

Anton Reynecke

in Afrikaans:

Ek dui die tyd ongesteurd
Skuif my, en ek is verkeerd

in English:

I show the time undisturbed
Move me, and I am wrong

Larry Bohlayer

Where shadows fall
the eye can see
the temporal nature
of I and thee.

Sun conceive
Moon reflect
Earth absorb
but I alone reveal.

Run Sun!
chase the sky.
Create the shadow
that times my eye.

Follow my shadow
to know the time.
Follow my light
to attain the divine.

I stand on the moving earth
gaugung roll, pitch, and a little yaw
to give man the time
and season him before his fall.

Oh, clouds, disperse!
Cleanse the sky.
Make way for the beam
Upon which to set thy eye.

Sundials! Sundials! Men must think me insane.
To fixate on such minutiae to have time explained.

Here shadows tell all.

Nothing but light to set me right.

Martha Villegas

"Shadow is now, Sundial is today, Stars are always"
"Sombra es ahora, Reloj de Sol es hoy, Astros son siempre"
"Umbra est Nunc, Solarium est Hodie, Sideris est Semper"

"The Time run through, the Stone perpetuate and the Man transcend"
"El Tiempo transcurre, la Piedra perdura y el Hombre trasciende"
"Tempus transcurrit, Lapidis perpetuat et Homo superat"

"The Eclipse stops the Sundial"
"El Eclipse detiene el Reloj de Sol"
"Defectio sistit Solarium"

"Look at the day shadows, but preserve the daylight hours"
"Ve las sombras del dia, pero conserva las horas de luz"