On the Shortness of Life

by Seneca, John W. Basore (Translator)

Overview

The Stoic philosopher Seneca (5 BC to AD 65) offers piercing and profound insights into human nature and a vision of the good life, so that one may say with him "Life is long, if you knows how to use it."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781399590
Publisher:	Benediction Classics
Publication date:	03/31/2018
Pages:	38
Sales rank:	448,135
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger usually known as Seneca, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.

Read an Excerpt

On the Shortness of Life

Most human beings, Paulinus,* complain about the meanness of nature, because we are born for a brief span of life, and because this spell of time that has been given to us rushes by so swiftly and rapidly that with very few exceptions life ceases for the rest of us just when we are getting ready for it. Nor is it just the man in the street and the unthinking mass of people who groan over this - as they see it - universal evil: the same feeling lies behind complaints from even distinguished men. Hence the dictum of the greatest of doctors:† 'Life is short, art is long.' Hence too the grievance, most improper to a wise man, which Aristotle expressed when he was taking nature to task for indulging animals with such long existences that they can live through five or ten human lifetimes, while a far shorter limit is set for men who are born to a great and extensive destiny. It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested.

* A friend of Seneca’s.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "On the Shortness of Life"
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Copyright © 2005 C. D. N. Seneca.
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Table of Contents

On the Shortness of LifeOn the Shortness of Life

Consolation to Helvia

On Tranquility of Mind

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