Motto and Crest
The Abbotsleigh motto, Tempus celerius radio fugit, may be translated from Latin as "Time flies faster than the weaver's shuttle". As the shuttle flies a pattern is woven; the shuttle of time also weaves a pattern of which the threads are people, buildings and events. The motto was given to the school by Miss Marian Clarke, whose family crest was a weaver's shuttle surrounded by the motto, Tempus fugit radio celerit. The school used this form until 1924, when it decided that the ungrammatical Latin should be changed to the present word order, which has been used ever since.
The reference to the weaver's shuttle is also believed by many to be a reference to the "proper" place of women in terms of domestic duties/servitude to men. Some members of the school community are calling for the motto to be changed in order to keep pace with modern views on feminine rights.
The 1934 edition of The Weaver explains the symbolism of the school crest: "the lion for the strength in God, lillies for purity and fish as the symbol of Christianity through baptism."
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Famous quotes containing the words motto and/or crest:
“My friend devotes himself to his life, whenever he can find the spare time. His motto is: ‘Don’t just sit there: live!’ So he’s too busy to stand, to walk, to do anything, except to live. He even refused to kiss a girl, when invited, on the grounds that it was time again to be living. Schedules are sacred to him.”
—Marvin Cohen, U.S. author and humorist. The Self-Devoted Friend, New Directions (1967)
“What shall he have that killed the deer?
His leather skin and horns to wear.
Then sing him home.
Take thou no scorn to wear the horn,
It was a crest ere thou wast born;
Thy father’s father wore it,
And thy father bore it.
The horn, the horn, the lusty horn
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)