On the Shortness of Life | 
One of my absolute favourite quotes, by Seneca.
"It is not that we have a short time to live, it is that we waste a lot of it... People are frugal in guarding their personal property, but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy."
“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.” - Seneca
Rest In Peace Billy.
July 30, 1997 - June 15, 2020
Til Valhalla Brother
From the father of mindfulness: “Present time is very brief, so brief, indeed, that to some there seems to be none; for it is always in motion, it ever flows and hurries on; it ceases to be before it has come, and can no more brook delay than the firmament or the stars, whose ever unresting movement never lets them abide in the same track. The engrossed, therefore, are concerned with present time alone and it is so brief that it cannot be grasped“
pickWritten by Seneca (the Younger), a 1st-century Roman Stoic philosopher, On The Shortness of Life is a collection of essays about the art of living, mortality, reason, and the nature of time.
This is one of those books that everyone should read from time to time, just to remember the importance of time management. Highly recommend!
“The performer must always be stronger than his task: loads that are too heavy for the bearer are bound to overwhelm him.”
- On Tranquillity of Mind
“Whatever is best for a human being lies outside human control: it can be neither given nor taken away. The world you see, nature‘s greatest and most glorious creation, and the human mind which gazes and wonders at it, and is the most splendid part of it, these are our own everlasting possessions and will remain with us as long as we ourselves remain.”
- Consolation to Helvia
"How angry they [vain men] get if the barber has been a bit careless – as if he were trimming a real man! How they flare up if any of their mane is wrongly cut off, if any of it is badly arranged, or if it doesn't fall into the right ringlets! Which of them would not rather have his country ruffled than his hair?"
A question for ye note takers!
If anyone takes notes on the books that ye read could ye comment on your processes.
Do you use sticky notes, write in the back of the cover, highlight on kindle etc? I like the details. :)
I am trying to get better at remembering what I read and this has lead me down this path! Thanks!
… the two things must be mingled and varied, solitude and joining a crowd: the one will make us long for people and the other for ourselves, and each will be a remedy for the other; solitude will cure our distaste for a crowd, and a crowd will cure our boredom with solitude.
What can happen to one can happen to all.
(The words of Publilius)
I am harried not by a tempest but by sea-sickness. Whatever my ailment, then, root it out and come to the help of one who is struggling in sight of land.
(The words of Serenus)
… she bore simultaneously the burdens of grief and fear and, though shipwrecked, she rode out the storms and brought his body ashore. O how many noble deeds of women are lost in obscurity! If she had chanced to live in the days of old when people frankly admired heroism, how men of genius would have competed to sing the praises of a wife who … ignored the sea which even the bravest must fear, and risked her life to give her husband burial.
We do not need to scour every ocean, or to load our bellies with the slaughter of animals, or to pluck shellfish from the unknown shores of the furthest sea. May gods and goddesses destroy those whose luxury passes the bounds of an empire that already awakens envy.
Honours, monuments, whatever the ambitious have ordered by decrees or raised in public buildings are soon destroyed: there is nothing that the passage of time does not demolish and remove. But it cannot damage the works which philosophy has consecrated: no age will wipe them out, no age will diminish them.
Do you call that man leisured who … sits at a wrestling ring (for shame on us! We suffer from vices which are not even Roman), keenly following the bouts between boys? … Theirs is not leisure but indolent occupation.
None of it [life] is frittered away, none of it scattered here and there, none of it commited to fortune, none of it lost through carelessness, none of it wasted in largesse, none of it superfluous; the whole of it, so to speak, is well invested. So, however short, it is fully sufficient, and therefore whenever his last day comes, the wise man will not hesitate to meet death with a firm step.
Fave quote #3: "Life is divided into three periods, past, present and future...the present is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain...It is the mind which is tranquil and free from care which can roam through all stages of its life..And so the preoccupied are concerned only with the present, and it is so short that it cannot be grasped, and even this is stolen from them while they are involved in their many distractions." #Stoicism
pickOf the three essays in this edition I liked 'On the Shortness of Life' the best: it advocates reading ancient philosophers and learning how to live (and die). A good second is 'On Tranquility of Mind,' which reads as a productivity hack. The 3rd essay, 'Consolation to Helvia' is about conquering grief and being happy (with yourself). #Stoicism
Fave quote #1: "Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only those are really alive...None of [the ancient philosophers] will force you to die, but all will teach you how to die...In this kind of life you will find much that is worth your study: the love and practice of the virtues, forgetfulness of the passions, the knowledge of how to live and die, and a life of deep tranquility." #Stoicism
It has been snowing for two days, and I managed to finish the latest dissertation chapter ONE day ahead of schedule. So, I am celebrating with Seneca and a cozy blanket. #Stoicism #Perspective
You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.
