The hours pass and are accounted for

“Pereunt et imputantur”
“The hours pass and are accounted for.”

It is a Latin expression that reminds us of the importance of not wasting time and of making it fruitful, one of the most famous phrases engraved on ancient sundials.

Its meaning is clear and relentless: time does not merely flow, it accumulates on our account.

In work, in leadership, in relationships, the mechanism is the same.

• What we do not do today returns as a cost tomorrow.
• Deferred choices still carry weight.
• Time invested well becomes competence, reputation, trust.
• Time wasted, by contrast, remains a liability that is difficult to offset.

The leader who understands this dynamic does not live in anxiety, but in awareness.

He knows that time is the most democratic resource there is, and the most ruthless in its judgment.

It is not about filling the days. It is about giving weight to the hours, because all of them — productive or unproductive — will sooner or later be “charged to the account.”