The Stoics mean to correct our preoccupation with the past and future; they regard the time we pour into memories, hopes, and fears to be mostly ill-spent (though not always, as we shall see). They also regard us as unconscious of the value of time generally. We give it away lightly, and waste it with less alarm than we waste money, though time is more valuable in the end. The Stoics’ analysis of time resembles their more general view of intangible costs and benefits, which this chapter will consider as well. We overrate money and undervalue time, just as we overrate material goods and the
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