## On the Shortness of Life highlights 🔹 *parent* [[❞ On the Shortness of Life|On the Shortness of Life]] 🔸 *author* [[Lucius Seneca]] > [!caption-left] >> (thumb:: ) >> On the Shortness of Life ### Metadata **title**:: On the Shortness of Life highlights **author**:: Lucius Seneca **category**:: books/highlights **image_url**:: "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Il8TGXWnL._SL200_.jpg" **cover**:: [cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Il8TGXWnL._SL200_.jpg) **modified**:: Oct 7, 2024 ### Highlights **Added October 16, 2024 at 8:32 PM** [Location 17](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=17) 🟦 > *It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.* ^796992331 [Location 21](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=21) > *Just as great and princely wealth is scattered in a moment when it comes into the hands of a bad owner, while wealth however limited, if it is entrusted to a good guardian, increases by use, so our life is amply long for him who orders it properly.* ^796992332 [Location 32](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=32) 🟧 > *"The part of life we really live is small." For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time.* ^796992333 [Location 43](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=43) 🟦 > *certain men show the most senseless indignation — they complain of the insolence of their superiors, because they were too busy to see them when they wished an audience!  But can anyone have the hardihood to complain of the pride of another when he himself has no time to attend to himself?* ^796992334 [Location 52](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=52) > *No one is to be found who is willing to distribute his money, yet among how many does each one of us distribute his life! In guarding their fortune men are often close-fisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, in the case of the one thing in which it is right to be miserly, they show themselves most prodigal.* ^796992335 [Location 60](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=60) 🟧 > *"Look back in memory and consider when you ever had a fixed plan, how few days have passed as you had intended, when you were ever at your own disposal, when your face ever wore its natural expression, when your mind was ever unperturbed, what work you have achieved in so long a life, how many have robbed you of life when you were not aware of what you were losing, how much was taken up in useless sorrow, in foolish joy, in greedy desire, in the allurements of society, how little of yourself was left to you; you will perceive that you are dying before your season!"* ^796992336 [Location 66](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=66) > *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.  You have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals.* ^796992337 [Location 71](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=71) > *What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to postpone wholesome plans to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained!* ^796992338 <br>**Added November 1, 2024 at 4:35 PM** [Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=235) 🟦 > *Would you say that that man is at leisure who arranges with finical care his Corinthian bronzes, that the mania of a few makes costly, and spends the greater part of each day upon rusty bits of copper? Who sits in a public wrestling-place (for, to our shame I we labor with vices that are not even Roman) watching the wrangling of lads?  Who sorts out the herds of his pack-mules into pairs of the same age and color? Who feeds all the newest athletes?* ^801316879 [Location 289](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=289) 🟦 > *Do they fight to the death?  That is not enough!  Are they torn to pieces?  That is not enough!   Let them be crushed by animals of monstrous bulk!  Better would it be that these things pass into oblivion lest hereafter some all-powerful man should learn them and be jealous of an act that was nowise human.* ^801316880 [Location 311](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=311) > *We may argue with Socrates, we may doubt with Carneades, find peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, exceed it with the Cynics.  Since Nature allows us to enter into fellowship with every age, why should we not turn from this paltry and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past, which is boundless, which is eternal, which we share with our betters?* ^801316881 [Location 333](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=333) 🟦 > *We are wont to say that it was not in our power to choose the parents who fell to our lot, that they have been given to men by chance; yet we may be the sons of whomsoever we will.  Households there are of noblest intellects; choose the one into which you wish to be adopted; you will inherit not merely their name, but even their property, which there will be no need to guard in a mean or niggardly spirit; the more persons you share it with, the greater it will become.* ^802508877 [Location 345](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=345) > *But those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear for the future have a life that is very brief and troubled; when they have reached the end of it, the poor wretches perceive too late that for such a long while they have been busied in doing nothing.* ^802508878 <br>**Added November 4, 2024 at 9:14 AM** [Location 384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=384) 🟥 > *Reasons for anxiety will never be lacking, whether born of prosperity or of wretchedness; life pushes on in a succession of engrossments.  We shall always pray for leisure, but never enjoy it.* ^806863150 [Location 395](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=395) 🟦 > *You win love in an office in which it is difficult to avoid hatred; but nevertheless believe me, it is better to have knowledge of the ledger of one's own life than of the corn-market.* ^806863151 [Location 408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B075THP2VL&location=408) 🟦 > *By the greatest subterfuge they concealed the great evil that lurked in the vitals of the state — with good reason, you may be sure.  For certain maladies must be treated while the patient is kept in ignorance; knowledge of their disease has caused the death of many.* ^806863152