On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

by James Harris

It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.

There is no reason then, to complain about anyone’s behavior if you cannot endure your own.

In guarding their fortune people are often tightfisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, which is the one thing they should have the right to be miserly over, they show themselves most uncontrolled.

You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever entered your head, of how much time has already gone by and you take no notice. You squander time as if you had a full and abundant supply, though one day which you waste on some person or thing could be your last. You have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals.