On the Shortness of Life Quotes

“all men they alone are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They take from every age to add to their own; all the years that have gone before them are an addition to their store. Unless we are most ungrateful, all those men, glorious tailors of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life. By other men's labours we are led to the sight of things most beautiful that have been wrestled from darkness and brought into light; from no age are we shut out, we have access to all ages, and if it is our wish, by greatness of mind, to pass beyond the narrow limits of human weakness, there is a great stretch of time through which we may roam. 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 small and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past, which is boundless, which”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The part of life we really live is small”. All the rest of existence is not life, but merely time.”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is occupied with many things—eloquence cannot exist, nor expansive studying—since the mind, when its interests are divided, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“he who has ambitiously yearned to possess, proudly scorned, recklessly conquered, treacherously betrayed, greedily seized, or lavishly squandered, must fear his own memory.”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“There is no reason then, to complain about anyone’s behavior if you cannot endure your own.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Men treat with little respect the most precious thing in the world; but they are blind to it because it is not physical, because it does not come to the sight of the eyes, and for this reason it is counted as a very cheap thing—or of almost no value at all.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“There is nothing the busy man is less occupied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The condition of all who are engrossed is poor, but poorest is the condition of those who labour at engrossments that are not even their own, who regulate their sleep by that of another, their walk by the pace of another, who are under orders—loving and hating.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“meanwhile death will be at hand, for which, whether you like it or not, you must find leisure.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“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.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“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 unhappy perceive too late that for such a long while they have been occupied in doing nothing.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“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.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“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.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“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.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“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.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“man, though he is born for so many and such great achievements. 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 quantity to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity, towards the end, we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“No one keeps death in view, no one refrains from far-reaching hopes; some men, indeed, even arrange for things that lie beyond life—huge masses of tombs and dedications of public works and gifts for their funeral. Such pretentious displays, but, in very truth, the funerals of such men ought to be conducted by the light of torches, and end as though they had lived but the tiniest span.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Whether you enter upon these sacred studies with the purpose of discovering what substance, what pleasure, what mode of life, what shape God has; what fate awaits your soul; where nature lays us to rest, when we are freed from the body; what the principle is that upholds all the heaviest matter in the center of this world, suspends the light, carries fire to the top, summons the stars – the universe is full of mighty wonders.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“And I do not summon you to slothful or idle inaction, or to drown all your energy in slumbers and the pleasures that are dear to the crowd. That is not to rest; you will find far greater works than all those you have until now performed so energetically, to occupy you in the middle of your release and rest. You, I know, manage the accounts of the whole world as honestly as you would a stranger's, as carefully as you would your own, as conscientiously as you would the state's. 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.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Moreover, what is doomed to perish brings pleasure to no one; therefore, the life of those who work hard to gain, must work harder to keep. By great toil they attain what they wish, and with anxiety hold what they have attained; meanwhile they take no account of time that will never more return. New engrossments take the place of the old, hope leads to new hope, ambition to new ambition. They do not seek an end of their unhappiness, but change the cause. Have we been tormented by our own public duty? Then those others take more of our time. Have we ceased to labor as job candidates? We then begin to work for others. Have we got rid of the troubles of a prosecutor? We then find ourselves before a judge. Has a man ceased to be a judge? He then becomes president of a court. 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.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The fact that the day often seems to them very long, the fact that they complain that the hours are passing so slowly until the time set for dinner arrives; for, whenever their engrossments are not there, they are restless because they are left with nothing to do, and they do not know how to use their leisure time. And so they strive for something else to occupy them, and all the intervening time is annoying; exactly as they are annoyed when a gladiatorial exhibition has been announced, or when they are waiting for the appointed time of some other show or amusement, they want to skip over the days that lie between. All postponement of something they hope for seems long to them.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“But the works which philosophy that have been created to promote morals cannot be harmed; no age will destroy them, no age reduce them; the following and each succeeding age will but increase the reverence for them, since envy works upon what is close at hand, the things that are far off we are more free to admire. The life of the philosopher, therefore, has wide range, and he is not confined by the same bounds that shut others in. He alone is freed from the limitations of the human race; all ages serve him as if a god. Has some time passed by? This he embraces by recollection. Is time present? This he uses. Is it still to come? This he anticipates. He makes his lifelong by combining all times into one.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Out of the noblest of 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 spirit; the more people you share it with, the greater it will become. These will open to you to the path of immortality, and will raise you to a height from which no one is cast down.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“We may say fairly however, that those who are engaged in the true duties of life shall wish to have Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus, and all the other high priests of liberal studies, and Aristotle and Theophrastus, as their most intimate friends every day. No one of these will be "not at home," no one of these will fail to have his visitors leave any happier and more devoted to himself than when he came, no one of these will allow anyone to leave him with empty hands; all mortals can meet with the noblest men night or day.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Of all men they alone are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They take from every age to add to their own; all the years that have gone before them are an addition to their store. Unless we are most ungrateful, all those men, glorious tailors of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Even the leisure of some men is engrossed; in their villa or on their couch, in their solitude, although they have withdrawn from all others, they are themselves the source of their own worry; we should say that these are living, not in leisure, but in busy idleness.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“They cry out that they have been fools, because they have not really lived, and that they will live the future in leisure if only they escape from this illness; then at last they reflect how uselessly they have striven for things which they did not enjoy, and how all their effort has gone for nothing.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The engrossed, therefore, are concerned with present time alone, and it is so brief that it cannot be grasped, and even this is taken away from them, distracted as they are among many things.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Life is divided into three periods—that which has been, that which is, that which will be. Of these the present time is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain. The last one however is the one over which Fortune has lost control, is the one which cannot be brought back under any man's power.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“But Fabianus who was none of your lecture-room philosophers of today, but one of the genuine and old-fashioned kind, used to say that we must fight against the passions with main force, not with trickery, and that the battle-line must be breached by a bold attack, not by inflicting pinpricks; that false arguments are not adequate, for the passions must be, not nipped, but crushed.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader