Sundials Quotes

• Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Life, Strength

  Benjamin Franklin, Edmund Sears Morgan (2007). “Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin Franklin”, p.142, Yale University Press

  108 Copy quote

  Show source

• Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Love, Life, Romantic

  Henry Van Dyke, “Time Is”

  146 Copy quote

  Show source

• Horus non numero nisi serenas (I count only the sunny hours).

  William Hazlitt

  Time, Sunny, Hours

  27 Copy quote

• I am a sundial, and I make a botch
  Of what is done much better by a watch.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Funny, Time, Watches

  'On a Sundial' (1938)

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• A stopped clock is correct twice a day, but a sundial can be used to stab someone, even at nighttime.

  John Hodgman

  Clock, Used, Nighttime

  John Hodgman (2012). “More Information Than You Require”, p.268, Penguin

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• An inch of time on the sundial is worth more than a foot of jade.

  Confucius

  Inspirational, Feet, Jade

  17 Copy quote

• The history of men of science has one peculiar advantage, as it shows the importance of little things in producing great results. Smeaton learned his principle of constructing a lighthouse, by noticing the trunk of a tree to be diminished from a curve to a cyclinder ... and Newton, turning an old box into a water-clock, or the yard of a house into a sundial, are examples of those habits of patient observation which scientific biography attractively recommends.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Science, Men, Curves

  24 Copy quote

• Hours fly,
  Flowers die:
  New days,
  New ways:
  Pass by!
  Love stays.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Life, Flower, New Day

  Henry Van Dyke (1920). “The works of Henry Van Dyke”

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Old sundial, you stand here for Time: For Love, the vine that round your base, Its tendrils twines, and dares to climb, And lay one flower-capped spray in grace, Without the asking on your cold, Unsmiling and unfrowning face.

  Eleanor Farjeon

  Life, Flower, Grace

  "Pan-Worship: And Other Poems (Time And Love)". Book by Eleanor Farjeon, 1908.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Time is: Too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Valentines Day, Meaningful, Famous Love

  Henry Van Dyke (1904). “Music, and Other Poems”

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist. So, for a time, if such a passion come to fruition, the man will get what he wants. He will get the moral support, the encouragement, the relief from the sense of loneliness, the assurance of his own worth. But these things pass away; inevitably they pass away as the shadows pass across sundials. It is sad, but it is so. The pages of the book will become familiar; the beautiful corner of the road will have been turned too many times. Well, this is the saddest story.

  Ford Madox Ford

  Beautiful, Encouragement, Loneliness

  Ford Madox Ford (2003). “The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion”, p.125, Broadview Press

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• As long as there's a place for sundials and gardening and beautiful things, there's a place for the harpsichord. I completely reject the idea that harpsichord is old. And I reject the idea that something old is therefore not good or not popular. Lots of things are old. Lots of traditions are old - cooking, art. I like it because it's beautiful.

  Mahan Esfahani

  Beautiful, Art, Ideas

  "How To Annoy Your Dad: Play The Harpsichord". "All Things Considered" with Robert Siegel, www.npr.org. December 29, 2015.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• What a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous embowelments of lead and brass, its pert or solemn dullness of communication, compared with the simple altar-like structure and silent heart-language of the old sundials! It stood as the garden god of Christian gardens. Why is it almost everywhere vanished? If its business-use be superseded by more elaborate inventions, its moral uses, its beauty, might have pleaded for its continuance.

  Charles Lamb

  Christian, Business, Communication

  Charles Lamb (1943). “A complete Elia: The essays of Elia, together with The last essays of Elia”

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight.

  Dwight L. Moody

  Godly, Christian Inspirational, Spirit

  18 Copy quote

• I suppose we all tend to remember only the happiness from our childhood, as a sundial refuses to tell the time except in fine weather.

  Bernard Levin

  Weather, Childhood, Remember

  Bernard Levin (1984). “Enthusiasms”, Random House Value Publishing

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• If America is to be run by the people, it is the people who must think. And we do not need to put on sackcloth and ashes to think. Nor should our minds work like a sundial which records only sunshine. Our thinking must square against some lessons of history, some principles of government and morals, if we would preserve the rights and dignity of men to which this nation is dedicated.

  Herbert Hoover

  Running, Sunshine, Men

  Herbert Hoover (1951). “Addresses Upon the American Road, 1948-1950”

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Carpe diem. (Seize the day.)

  Horace

  Movie, Wise, Latin

  Horace, Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz (2008). “The Odes of Horace”, p.27, JHU Press

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

• Lord, it is time. The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetiness into the heavenly wine.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Summer, Wine, Wind

  Rainer Maria Rilke, M. D. Herter Norton (1993). “Translations from the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke”, p.71, W. W. Norton & Company

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Like the sundial, my paint box counts no hours but sunny ones.

  Arthur Rackham

  Sunny, Hours, Paint

  53 Copy quote

• With warning hand I mark Time's rapid flight,
  From Life's glad morning to its solemn night;
  Yet, through the dear Lord's love, I also show
  There's light above me by the shade I throw.

  John Greenleaf Whittier

  Morning, Night, Light

  7 Copy quote

• She was so ugly that her face could stop a sundial.

  Rodney Dangerfield

  Ugly, Faces

  9 Copy quote

• I tried to read The Dubliners, when I went to Dublin a couple of years ago. I think I only go thurogh the first story. Gnomon is such an interesting word. So many different uses for a word nooone has heard of, or uses these days. I googled some pictures of sundials to check that it was the tall shadow casting bit (it is) and then discovered that Saint Sulpice in Paris has a rather fascinating large gnomon- which I shall endeavour to see on my next visit to that fair city. Thanks for such a great word, which I shall try to remember.

  Brian D. McLaren

  Couple, Thinking, Years

  7 Copy quote

• We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.

  Ford Madox Ford

  Fear, Needs, Moral Support

  Ford Madox Ford (2003). “The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion”, p.125, Broadview Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source