Mottoes

Love all alike no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time

Brief is life but love is long
And brief the sun of summer

The shadow by my finger cast, divides the future from the past

Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full dazzling!

How slow the Shadow creeps; but when 'tis past,
How fast the Shadows fall. How fast! How fast!

Serene I stand among the flowers
And only count life's sunny hours
To me dark days do not exist,
I'm a brazen faced old optimist

Let others tell of storms and showers, I only count your sunny hours

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today

Keep your face towards the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.

Sunshine passes, shadows fall, love and memories outlast all.

Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again. (Ovid)

Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.

Love is not written on paper, for paper can be erased. Nor is it etched on stone, for stone can be broken. But it is inscribed on a heart and there it shall remain forever.

Here reader mark the silent steps of never standing time.
In the middle of all sits the Sun enthroned. ( Nicolas Copernicus )

Of shade and sunshine for each hour see here a measure made,
then wonder not if life consists of sunshine and of shade.

From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.

Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
(Benjamin Franklin)

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul

It is later than you think.

If as we're walking a hand should slip free
I'll wait for you
And should I fall behind
Wait for me

We saved each other from a life in shadows

L'heure passe, l 'amitié reste. ( the hours pass, friendship remains)

Si le passé et le futur existent je veux savoir où ils sont  (if the past and the future exist I would like to know where they are )

Time wastes us, our bodies and our wits; And we waste time: so time and we are quits.

Avant de regarder si je suis juste, regarde si tu l'est toi-même
(Before thou lookest if I am right, look if thou are right thyself.)

Light and shadow by turns, but love always.
(or in latin.....lux et umbra vicissim sed semper amor.)

Time is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at once.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
the song of the birds for mirth,
one is nearer God's heart in a garden,
than anyplace else on earth.

I stand amid the summer flowers
To tell the passage of the hours.
When winter steals the flowers away
I tell the passing of their day.
Man whose flesh is but as grass
Like summer flowers thy life shall pass
While time is thine lay up in store
And thou shalt live for evermore.

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 not.

With warning hand I mark time's rapid flight,
From life's glad morning to its solemn night.
Yet through the dear God's love, I also show,
There's light above me by the shade below.

The clock the time may wrongly tell,
I never if the sun shines well.

In memory, love lives forever.

We live in deeds, not years, in thoughts not breaths
in feelings, not in figures on a dial.

Dance as though no one is watching you,
Love as though you have never been hurt before,
Sing as though no one can hear you,
Live as though heaven is on earth.

No minute gone comes ever back again, take heed and see ye nothing do in vain.

love is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken

Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. ( Macbeth )

Thou by the dial's shady stealth may know
Time's thievish progress to eternity
(Shakespeare sonnet 77)

Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend
Nor services to do, till you require.
(Shakespeare sonnet 57)

Make the passing shadow serve thy will.

The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past.
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine.
Before it lies the unknown hour
In darkness and beyond thine power.
One hour alone is in thine hands,
The NOW on which the shadow stands.

Some beautiful lines by Elizabeth Barrett Browning....

or something more contemporary......James Taylor

Well the sun is surely sinking down
But the moon is slowly rising
So this old world must still be spinning around
And I still love you

This one is from John Donne, Songs and Sonnets.1633....

If our two loves be one,or, thou and I Love so alike,
that none doe slacken, none can die.

This is also John Donne....,

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,why does thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

how about a metaphysical quotation....

For in and out, above, about, below,
'Tis nothing but a magic shadow show,
Play'd in a box whose candle is the sun,
Round which we phantom figures come and go.

This next one is by Robert Herrick, 1591-1674....

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a-flying

some latin....

carpe diem (seize the day!)

or a longer version....

Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero...... (seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow)

Transit umbra; lux permanet
The shadow passes; light remains.

fugit inreparabile tempus
Virgil Georgics iii 284 ...( time is irretrievably flying )

or a variation on that....

Time is flying, never to return

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis
(Times change and we change with them)

Horas non numero nisi serenas
( I count only the bright hours )

or similar variation on this.......

Omnia sol temperat purus et subtilis
(The sun warms everything, pure and gentle )

Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu.
( The important thing isn't how long you live, but how well you live)

Ab hoc momento pendet aeternitas.
(On this moment hangs eternity)

Amor vincit omnia
( love conquers all )

Ad occasum tendimus omnes.
( We are travelling each towards his sunset)

Lucem sequimur.
(We follow the light )

Sol regit omnia
(The sun rules all )

In perpetuum et unum diem
( forever and a day )

These verses by Hilaire Belloc are worth including...both serious and frivolous so consider using just a small passage or line ....