Tempora mutantur

Tempora mutantur is a Latin adage meaning "times change". It is also stated in various longer hexametric forms, most commonly Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis, meaning "Times change, and we change with them". The phrase is not found in Classical Latin, but is a variant of phrases of Ovid, to whom it is sometimes misattributed. Instead, it dates to early/mid 16th century Germany, in the context of the Protestant Reformation, and it subsequently was popularized in various forms. See history for history and other forms.

Regarding the form:

Like many adages and proverbial or wisdom maxims drawn from the Latin cultural tradition, this line is a hexameter: the rhythmical verse, typical of the great epic poetry, both in Greek and Latin literature. All other Latin verses cited in this page are hexameters as well.

The fact that et (and) is following nos and being accented in the hexameter's rhythm, attributes an emphasis to it. In this position et works as a short form of etiam; meaning: "also, too" or "even". So a correct translation is "and we too", instead of the simple "and we".

The verb means both "to move" and "to change", so an alternate reading is "The times move [on], and we move [along] in them." This recalls the image of time as a river, moving along, as in Heraclitus' Πάντα ῥεῖ (panta rhei) "everything is in a state of flux".

The notion of change, of everything changing, dates in Western philosophy at least to Heraclitus, and is summarized in Ancient Greek as panta rhei (πἀντα ρει, "everything flows"). The Latin formulation tempora mutantur is not classical, and does not have a generally accepted attribution – it is often identified as "traditional" – though it is frequently misattributed, particularly to Ovid. It is typically considered a variant of "everything changes", specifically from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the phrase omnia mutantur, nihil interit "everything changes, nothing perishes". However, the earliest attestation is from the German theologian Caspar Huberinus () (1500–1553), who instead uses tempora mutantur as a variant of tempora labuntur "time labors", from Ovid's Fasti. The phrase tempora mutantur may thus be seen as a hybrid of tempora labuntur and omnia mutantur, both from Ovid.

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