On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

by James Harris

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. I invite

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. You will hear many say: "After my fiftieth

He who always possesses an undiminished and stable liberty, being free and his own master, towers over all others. For what can possibly be above him who is above Fortune or fate?

But he who bestows all of his time on his own needs, who plans out every day as if it were his last, neither longs for nor fears tomorrow.

And so there is no reason for you to think that any man has lived long because he has grey hairs or wrinkles; he has not lived long—he has existed long.

The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon tomorrow and wastes the present. You hope for that which lies in the hands of Fortune, yet you let go of that which lies in your own.

Reasons for anxiety will never be lacking, whether born of prosperity or of unhappiness; life pushes on in a succession of engrossments. We shall always pray for leisure, but never enjoy it.