On the shortness of life

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to use for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realise that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.

Seneca, On the Shortness of Life. C 5BC – AD 65


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “On the shortness of life”

  1. Jennifer avatar
    Jennifer

    Nature’s first green is gold,
    Her hardest hue to hold.
    Her early leaf’s a flower;
    But only so an hour.
    Then leaf subsides to leaf.
    So Eden sank to grief,
    So dawn goes down to day.
    Nothing gold can stay.
    Robert Frost

  2. Isabelle Esling avatar
    Isabelle Esling

    We gotta stay focused on our goals, whatever they may be…it’s better to die trying than having done nothing concrete in fullfilling our dreams.