874
A much better national motto
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2024
874 points (99.3% liked)
Political Memes
5520 readers
1650 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I could be dead wrong, but I actually get the impression this wasn't really meant in the modern colloquial sense of keeping your nose out of other people's affairs, and more in the literal sense of keep on top of your business dealings. Which would make sense, since it was to be printed on money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugio_cent
That's a good point and I have no doubt you are correct. Interesting wikipedia entry, thanks!
That sort of admonition would quickly be used as a mild insult though, no matter how literal. Same with something like "set your house in order" which is a biblical phrase with a very similar meaning to what Franklin was going for, as it's related to there not being much time and Franklin relates his phrase to time flying. It's too direct for English.
I think both of them have a more specific meaning of something like a combination of "you're the master of your own fate" and "seize the day."
I think I remember reading about similar phrases telling the reader to be conscious of their mortal life on a bunch of old world clocks? Maybe he was influenced by those.
Memento Mori.