You have no grounds for supposing that any one has lived long, because he has wrinkles or grey hairs:
such a man has not lived long, but has only been long alive.
We do not receive a short life, but we make it a short one, and:
we are not poor in days, but wasteful of them.
We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it:
life is long enough to carry out the most important projects:
we have an ample portion, if we do but arrange the whole of it aright:
but when it all runs to waste through luxury and carelessness,
when it is not devoted to any good purpose,
then at the last we are forced to feel that it is all over,
although we never noticed how it glided away.
Look back in your memory and see how often you have been consistent in your projects,
how many days passed as you intended them to do when you were at your own disposal,
how much work you have done in so long a time,
how many people have without your knowledge stolen parts of your life from you,
how much you have lost,
how large a part has been taken up by useless grief, foolish gladness, greedy desire, or polite conversation;
how little of yourself is left to you?
…
Words of wisdom from Seneca.
All of it makes sense even thousands of years later!
Timeless wisdom
Happy reading! 📙