On The Shortness Of Life by Seneca
Three Point Summary | Stoic wisdom
Born over 2,000 years ago in Spain, Seneca was a Stoic philosopher whose writings still exercise widespread influence.
In AD 65, the Roman Emperor Nero accused Seneca of being part of a conspiracy against him. He ordered him to kill himself. Seneca accepted his fate and ended his own life.
The following is a collection of inspiring ideas from the ancient man.
“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future.”
“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”
“Everyone hustles his life along, and is troubled by a longing for the future and weariness of the present. But the man who spends all his time on his own needs, who organizes every day as though it were his last, neither longs for nor fears the next day.”
“Believe me, it is the sign of a great man, and one who is above human error, not to allow his time to be frittered away: he has the longest possible life…”
“Nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing.”
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only those are really alive.”
“No man has been shattered by the blows of Fortune unless he was first deceived by her favors.”
“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”
“Man is endowed with a mind which is changeable and unsettled: nowhere at rest, it darts about and directs its thoughts to all places known and unknown, a wanderer which cannot endure repose and delights chiefly in novelty. This will not surprise you if you consider its original source. It was not made from heavy, earthly material, but came down from that heavenly spirit: but heavenly things are by nature always in motion, fleeing and driven on extremely fast.”
“I imagine many people could have achieved wisdom if they had not imagined they had already achieved it.”
“We are naturally disposed to admire more than anything else the man who shows fortitude in adversity.”
“We must be especially careful in choosing people, and deciding whether they are worth devoting a part of our lives to them.”
“You must especially avoid those who are gloomy and always lamenting, and who grasp at every pretext for complaint…a companion who is agitated and groaning about everything is an enemy to peace of mind.”
“In life you will find delights and relaxations and pleasures if you are prepared to make light of your troubles and not let them distress you.”
“Whatever happens to anyone can happen to you too.”
“Solitude and joining a crowd: the one will make us long for people and the other for ourselves, and each will be a remedy for the other; solitude will cure our distaste for a crowd, and a crowd will cure our boredom with solitude.”
“Our minds must relax: they will rise better and keener after a rest…constant effort will sap our mental vigor, while a short period of rest and relaxation will restore our powers.”
“It is more civilized to make fun of life than to bewail it…laughter expresses the gentlest of our feelings, and reckons that nothing is great or serious or even wretched in all the trappings of our existence.”
Great one!