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!)