Tempus fugit is a Latin phrase that means “time flies”. It’s meant to remind you that your time is limited and continuously passing, both in general and when it comes to specific things such as pursuing your goals or being with the people you care about.
This concept can help guide your thoughts and actions in various ways, such as by prompting you to stop delaying when it comes to following your dreams, or by encouraging you to appreciate important moments as you’re experiencing them. As such, in the following article you will learn more about the concept of tempus fugit, and see how you can implement it in practice.
Using ‘tempus fugit’ as a reminder
The main way to use the concept of ‘tempus fugit’ to your advantage is to use it as a reminder that your time is limited and always passing, often more rapidly than you would like. There are many situations in which this reminder can be useful, both when guiding your own thoughts and actions, as well as when guiding the thoughts and actions of others. These include, most notably:
- When you want to push someone to make a decision or take action quickly. For example, this can be relevant in a situation where if someone doesn’t make a decision soon, then they’ll miss out on a valuable opportunity.
- When you want to prompt someone to stop procrastinating on something. For example, this can be relevant in a situation where someone keeps putting off something important that they have to do, because they don’t want to deal with it.
- When you want to get someone to stop focusing on unimportant problems. For example, this can be relevant in a situation where someone is engaging in premature optimization instead of focusing on the things that they should be dealing with.
- When you want to draw someone’s attention to the fact that they’re wasting their time. For example, this can be relevant in a situation where someone is simply coasting along in life, instead of taking the initiative and doing something meaningful with their time.
- When you want to drive someone to figure out what truly matters to them. For example, this can be relevant in a situation where someone keeps switching between different courses of action, without dedicating themself to any one of them in particular, because they haven’t thought about what their goals are.
- When you want to encourage someone to appreciate important moments as they’re happening. For example, this can be relevant in a situation where someone is letting their life go by without taking the time to pay attention to meaningful moments as they experience them.
In such situations, as well as in others, the simple reminder ‘tempus fugit’ can help you focus your thoughts and guide your actions, or it can help you remind someone else to do the same.
In addition, note that it’s sometimes better to focus on the underlying concept behind ‘tempus fugit’, rather than on the term itself. For example, if you’re trying to get someone to take action, it might be better to simply remind them that “time flies”, rather than to say to them “tempus fugit” and then explain what this term means.
Related concepts to implement
There are two notable concepts that are closely associated with the concept of ‘tempus fugit’:
- Carpe diem. Carpe diem is a Latin phrase that means “seize the day”. It encourages people to focus on the present, appreciate the value of every moment in life, and avoid postponing things unnecessarily, because every life eventually comes to an end.
- Memento mori. Memento mori is a Latin phrase that means “remember that you will die”. It is meant to remind you of your own mortality, and of the brevity and fragility of human life.
These two phrases can be used as similar reminders as ‘tempus fugit’, when it comes to reminding you to make the most of the time that you have. However, each of these terms approaches this concept from a different angle, so you might find that one resonates with you more than the others, either in general or in particular situations.
Additional information
The pronunciation of ‘tempus fugit’
The term ‘tempus fugit’ is usually pronounced as tem-pes foo-git or tem-pes fyoo-jit. However, there is no single, standardized pronunciation for the term when it is used in modern English, and similar variants are sometimes used, such as tem-poos foo-jet.
The origin and history of ‘tempus fugit’
The term ‘tempus fugit’ originates in book III of Virgil’s “Georgics”, where it was originally written as “Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus”, which can be translated as “But time meanwhile is flying, flying beyond recall”.
Later mentions of the concept focus on the second part of this statement, “fugit inreparabile tempus”, which can be translated by itself as “Time flies away, and cannot be restored”.
A notable place where this term is mentioned is in “Letters from a Stoic” (letter number 108—”On the Approaches to Philosophy”), where renowned Stoic philosopher Seneca discusses this concept, and refers to “fugit inreparabile tempus” as a “noble passage”. When doing this, Seneca focuses on “how often Vergil, in speaking of the rapidity of time, uses the word ‘flies’ [fugit]” and states that “Vergil never says, ‘Time goes,’ but ‘Time flies,’ because the latter is the quickest kind of movement”.
In more modern times, this concept is generally referred to using the simpler version of the term—tempus fugit. Among the many works that use this term are various poems, such as the following:
Fellow fugitive
Forgive yourself
And me thereby
Thus we can live
Whatever’s left
Of time for us,
Each day a gift
We take on trust
— “Tempus fugit” by Samuel Menashe
Note: although ‘tempus fugit’ is often translated as ‘time flies’, an idiom that is common in English, an alternative and more literal way to translate it is ‘time flees’, a translation that emphasizes the powerful and inevitable passage of time.
Related terms
Over time, some terms have been derived from the basic term ‘tempus fugit’. These include, most notably, the following:
- Tempus fugit, amor manet, which means “time flees, love remains”.
- Tempus fugit, aeternitas manet, which means “time flees, eternity remains”.
- Tempus fugit (et numquam revertitur), which means “time flees (and never returns)”.
- Tempus fugit velut umbra, which means “time flees like a shadow”.
These terms generally revolve around the literal translation of ‘tempus fugit’ as “time flees” rather than “time flies”.
In addition, note that the phrase ‘tempus fugit’ is sometimes inscribed on sundials and clocks, to serve as a reminder that time flies. Similar terms that are inscribed in this manner are “vulnerant omnes, ultima necat”, which means “all [hours] wound, the last one kills”, and “ultima forsan”, which means “perhaps the last [hour]”.
Summary and conclusions
- Tempus fugit is a Latin phrase that means “time flies”.
- It’s meant to remind you that your time is limited and continuously passing, both in general and when it comes to specific things such as pursuing your goals or being with the people you care about.
- There are many situations in which this reminder can be useful, both when guiding your own thoughts and actions, as well as when guiding the thoughts and actions of others.
- For example, you can use the concept of tempus fugit to push someone to make a decision or take action quickly, to get someone to stop focusing on unimportant issues, to drive someone to figure out what truly matters to them, or to encourage someone to appreciate important moments as they’re happening.
- Two related concepts that can also be beneficial to implement are carpe diem, which means “seize the day”, and memento mori, which means “remember that you will die”.