Nec unus dies ad nos stat: fugiunt omnes. Antequam uenit, abscedit. De hoc ergo die, ex quo loquimur, quantum iam fugit! Nec horam, in qua sumus, tenemus. Fugit et ipsa, uenit et alia, nec ipsa statura sed fugitura. Quid amas? Comprehende quod amas, tene quod amas, habe quod amas. Nec stat nec stare permittit. Omnis caro foenum et omnis claritas hominis ut flos foeni. Foenum aruit, flos decidit.
Not a single day stands still for us: they all fly away. Even before it arrives, it is gone. Even this day, which I am speaking about, how much has already flown away. And we cannot cling to the hour in which we are present. It flies and another comes, and that one will not remain but will fly away too. What do you love? Take hold of what you love, hold on to what you love, keep what you love. But time neither stands still nor allows you to stand still. ‘All flesh is grass and all the glory of man is like a flower of grass. The flesh withers, the flower falls’ [1 Peter 1:24-25].
St. Augustine, Sermo 65/A.13. My translation.
Notes:
Sancti Aurelii Augustini Sermones in Matthaeum, ed. by Pierre-Patrick Verbraken (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), p. 401. In many editions, the first sentence of this passage is given as: 'Non ad nos stat nec unus dies, nec unus dies ad nos stat, fugiunt omnes'. Verbraken correctly restores that first clause to the sentence prior: a great improvement through a simple change in punctuation.