Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut minus ex crastino pendeas, si hodierno manum inieceris
“Hold on to every hour; you will depend less on tomorrow if you lay hold of today.”
Seneca, Epistulae morales 1.2
What does “Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut minus ex crastino pendeas, si hodierno manum inieceris” mean?
Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut minus ex crastino pendeas, si hodierno manum inieceris translates as “Hold on to every hour; you will depend less on tomorrow if you lay hold of today.”
Make full use of each hour, and you will be less at the mercy of an uncertain future. Seneca’s advice is an early version of "seize the day".
“Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut …” word by word
| Latin | English | Grammar |
|---|---|---|
| Omnes | all, every | accusative plural feminine, agreeing with horas |
| horas | hours | accusative plural of hora, “hour”; direct object of complectere |
| complectere | embrace! hold on to! | singular command (imperative) of the deponent verb complector, “I embrace”; passive form, active meaning |
| sic | in this way, thus | adverb |
| fiet | it will come about | future tense of fio, “I become, I happen”; the ut-clause that follows is what will happen |
| ut | that | conjunction introducing the result clause, so the verb that follows is subjunctive |
| minus | less | adverb, comparative of parum, “little” |
| ex | from, on | preposition taking the ablative; with pendeas it means “depend on” |
| crastino | tomorrow | ablative singular neuter of crastinus, “of tomorrow”, used as a noun (“the morrow”) |
| pendeas | you will hang, you will depend | 2nd person singular present subjunctive of pendeo, “I hang, I depend”; subjunctive because it follows ut |
| si | if | conjunction |
| hodierno | today | ablative singular neuter of hodiernus, “of today”, used as a noun; the thing you lay hold of |
| manum | hand | accusative singular of manus, “hand”; direct object of inieceris |
| inieceris | you will have thrown on, you will have laid | 2nd person singular future perfect of inicio, “I throw in, lay on”; manum inicere means “to lay a hand on, seize” |
How to pronounce “Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut …”
The main difference is the c in inieceris, hard (k) in Classical and soft (ch) in Church Latin. Church Latin also drops the h sound in horas and hodierno.
The story behind it
Word for word the line says “embrace all the hours; in this way it will come about that you depend less on tomorrow, if you lay a hand on today”. Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher and statesman, wrote it in the very first of his Epistulae morales, letters of advice addressed to his friend Lucilius.
That first letter is about time. Seneca urges Lucilius to claim his hours for himself and stop letting them slip away, and this line comes early in that argument. Its image is physical: manum inicere, “to lay a hand on”, is what you do to seize something that might escape.
Readers often hear in it an early version of “seize the day”, though it is Seneca’s own thought, not Horace’s carpe diem. Today it suits planners, resolution cards and talk of time management.
How to use “Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut …”
It fits a productivity planner, a New Year resolution card, a study-desk motto or a line in an essay on how the Stoics thought about time. It works best where the point is making use of the present hour, not simply enjoying the moment.
- Latin
- Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut minus ex crastino pendeas, si hodierno manum inieceris
- English
- Hold on to every hour; you will depend less on tomorrow if you lay hold of today.
- Source
- Seneca, Epistulae morales 1.2
- Era
- Classical
- Theme
- Time
Common mistakes
- It is not a call to live for pleasure. Seneca’s point is to use time well and be less at the mercy of the future.
- Do not confuse it with Horace’s carpe diem. Seneca’s line is a separate and longer sentence from a different author.
- The verb complectere is a deponent: it looks passive but means “embrace” in the active sense, so do not translate it as “be embraced”.
- Quoting only the first clause, Omnes horas complectere, drops the second half about depending less on tomorrow, which holds the real argument.
Questions about “Omnes horas complectere; sic fiet ut …”
What does “Omnes horas complectere” mean literally?
“Embrace all the hours.” The full sentence adds that you will depend less on tomorrow if you lay hold of today.
Who said “Omnes horas complectere”?
Seneca the Younger, in Epistulae morales 1.2, the opening of his letters to Lucilius.
Is “Omnes horas complectere” the same as “carpe diem”?
They are close in spirit but not the same. Carpe diem is Horace’s phrase, while Seneca’s line stresses using every hour well so that the future has less power over you.
How do you pronounce “Omnes horas complectere”?
In Classical Latin, roughly OM-nays HOH-rahs kom-PLEK-teh-reh. In Church Latin the vowels are similar, but the h is silent in horas, so it sounds like OH-rahs.
More to explore
Translation and grammar checked by Latin Quoter · last reviewed November 2026
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