Nothing Is Swifter Than The Years

The phrase nihil est annis velocius — "nothing is swifter than the years" — comes from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book X) and is sometimes associated with Augustan-era reflection on time and urgency. Augustus was himself known for the related aphorism festina lente ("make haste slowly"), recorded by Suetonius (Divus Augustus, §25) as one of his favourite sayings — a pairing of speed and caution that defined his approach to both warfare and statecraft. The observation that time passes with unstoppable speed was a commonplace of Latin moral philosophy, shared by Seneca and later Stoic writers.