Hand picked Seneca Quotes On the Shortness of Life

Today, I picked up an old book I had read a few years ago. On Shortness of Life, by Seneca.

The book is rather short, only 106 pages. But it is packed with knowledge. Which is why, this blog post is going to be longer than usual.

You are not supposed to excessively quote because then you aren't really writing, but exhibiting other peoples work. And that is precisely what you are about to see here.

Every quote is inside these " " and written in italic. If they don't start with a capital it is because they are mid sentence quotes. Some are pretty self explanatory. On others I have left a little comment after the page number for you to think a little extra. You will see that the quotes go in sections; misuse of time, fortune and catastrophe, on people and relationships and so on. I have not edited or skipped any words.

I hope you enjoy these and apply some of these lessons to your life. I highly recommend you read the whole thing. If you click on the photo below, it will take you to amazon where you can find the exact version I have.

"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested." - page 1 - Already starting great.I feel live I've already lived 10 lives. I am only 25, but when people see me they usually guess 27 or 28.

"Some have no aims at all for their lie's course" - page 2

"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" - page 4. It's okay to say no when people invite you to things you don't want to. Your time is a lot more valuable than your properties.

"How many have plundered your life when you were unaware of your losses; how much you have lost through groundless sorrow, foolish joy, greedy desire, the seductions of society; how little of your own was left to you" - page 5

"You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire." - page 5 . We act as if we will live forever and postpone doing the things we like, saving them for a latter date that may never come. Why?

"But among the worst offenders I count those who spend all their time in drinking and lust, for these are the worst preoccupations of all." - page 9

"Living is the least important activity of the preoccupied man; yet there is nothing which is harder to learn. There are many instructors in the other arts to be found everywhere: indeed, some of these arts mere boys have grasped so thoroughly that they can even teach them. But learning how to live takes a whole life, and, which may surprise you more, it takes a whole life to lear how to die." - Page 10

"Believe me, it is the sign of a great man, and one who is above human error, not to allow his time to be frittered away: he has the longest possible life simply because whatever time was available he devoted entirely to himself. " - Page 10. Time is our most valuable asset.

"But the man who spends all his time on this own needs, who organizes every day as though it were his last , neither longs for nor fears the next day." page 11

"So you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just excited long." page 11. It is not the length of your your years, but the depths of them. Do you not feel like some weeks fly by and some days last forever?

"You have been preoccupied while life hastens on." page 13

"The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hands upon tomorrow and loses today." page 13

"life is divided into three periods, past, present and future. Of these, the present is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain. For this last is the one over which fortune has lost her power, which cannot be brought back to anyone's control. But this is what preoccupied people lose: for they have no time to look back at their past, and even if they did, it is not pleasant to recall activities they are ashamed of. So they are unwilling to cast their minds back to times ill spent, which they dare not relive if their vices in recollection become obvious - even those vices whose insidious approach was disguised by the charm of some momentary pleasure." page 15

"They exclaim that they were fools because they have not really lived, and that if only they can recover from this illness they will live in leisure. Then they reflect how pointlessly they acquired things they never would enjoy, and how all their toils has been in vain." - Page 17 . The person who spends all their life working, to accumulate things, that now they cannot enjoy. They are too old for that trip, their children have now grown up, the time has passed, it cannot come back and they have not lived.

"Some men are preoccupied even if their leisure: in their country house, on their couch, in the midst of solitude, even when quite alone, they are their own worst company. You could not call theirs a life of leisure, but an idle preoccupation." Page 17 . When was the last time you spent time alone. Not on your phone, nor reading. Just thinking. Healing yourself. Alone.

"So the life of the philosopher extends widely: he is not confined by the same boundary as are others. He alone is free from the laws that limit the human race, and all ages serve him as though he were a god. " page 25 - Maybe that's why I want to become a writer, and maybe after much study, a philosopher myself.

"life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future" - Page 26

"they are restless with nothing to do, not knowing how to dispose of their leisure or make the time pass." page 26

"For they dash from one pleasure to another and cannot stay steady in one desire. Their days are not long but odious: on the other hand, how short do the nights seem which they spend drinking or sleeping with harlots!" page 26 . Do you drink and indulge yourself in vices for recreation, or to escape? to not be alone with those things you don't want to admit to yourself?

"they lose the day waiting for the night, and the night fearing the dawn" page 27.

" All the greatest blessing create anxiety, and Fortune is never less to be trusted than when it is fairest. To preserve prosperity we need other prosperity, and to support the prayers which have turned out we have to make other prayers. Whatever comes our way by chance is unsteady, and the higher it rises the more liable it is to fall" page 28

"Life will be driven on through a succession of preoccupations: we shall always long for leisure, but never enjoy it" page 29.

"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 tranquillity." page 31

"no one keeps death in view, no one refrains from hopes that look far ahead; indeed, some people even arrange things that are beyond life". page 33

"Everlasting misfortune does have one blessing, that it ends up by toughening those whom it constantly afflicts" - page 36

"It was nature's intention that there should be no need of great equipment for a good life: every individual can make himself happy. External goods are of trivial importance and without much influence in either direction. Prosperity does not elevate the sage and adversity does not depress him" - page 38. In reality we need very little to live. When something worries me, to calm myself down I like to think: 'Will it kill me? and Will I end up in prison?' If both answers are no, then I shouldn't worry about it so much.

"Never have I trusted Fortune, even when she seemed to offer peace." - Page 39

"No man has been shattered by the blows of Fortune unless he was first deceived by her favours." Page 39

"the man who is not puffed up in good times does not collapse either when they change. His fortitude is already tested and he maintains a mind unconquered in the face of either condition". Page 39 . When things are going good, keep your cool, don't show off. When things are not going good, keep your cool, don't collapse.

"So I have never believed that there was any genuine good in the things which everyone prays for; what is more, I have found them empty and daubed with showy and deceptive colours, with nothing inside to match their appearance" - page 39. Not everything that shines is gold. Just because everyone wants it, it does not mean it is nessesarily good for you.

"some by self-indulgence seeking a place conveniently rich in vice" page 40

"there is a sort of inborn restlessness in the human spirit and an urge to change one's abode; a wanderer which cannot endure repose and delights chiefly in novelty." page 41. I feel/suffer from this competly. I call it "gypsy feet" which is why I keep travelling and moving. I should follow Seneca's advice and try find calmness within myself instead of rushing off to the next place looking for new cool things to distract my mind.

"Different reasons roused different peoples to leave their homes: but this at least is clear, nothing has stayed where it was born. The human race is always on the move: in so large a world there is every day some change". page 43. The only constant in this world is change. Things don't stay the same.

"In a word, you will hardly find a dingle country still inhabited by its original natives: everywhere the people are of mixed and imported stock." - Page 44. This is a lot more true now than in Seneca's time. How many people do you know that when you ask them where are they from, they have to give you a story of their life? (Eg one of my friends: born in Germany with a Finish father and Brazilian mother, but I grew up in Spain and did my university in the UK. )

"So fate has decreed that nothing maintains the same condition forever." - page 44

"that earthly things stand in the way of genuine goods through a wayward of belief in false goods." page 46

"Being without your country is not misery: you have thoroughly taught yourself by your studies to know that to a wise man every place is his country." page 48. I was born in Argentina from Italian dependents, raised in Spain, studied my bachelor in Italy masters in France and lived all over. I don't consider myself from any of these places. I am a human of the world. That's also why I would never fight in any war as I have no beef with any group of people.

"But there is no evil in poverty, as anyone knows who has not yet arrived at the lunatic state of greed and luxury, which ruin everything. For how little is need to support a man! And who can lack this if he has any virtue at all? As far as I am concerned, I know that I have lost not wealth but distractions. The body's needs are few: it wants to be free from cold, to banish hunger and thirst with nourishment; if we long for anything more we are exerting ourselves to serve our vices, not our needs." page 48.

"They vomit in order to eat, and eat in order to vomit, and banquets for which they ransack the whole world they do not even deign to digest." page 49.

"Is it not madness and the worst form of derangement to want so much though you can hold so little? - page 50

"How then can you think that it is the amount of money that matters and not the attitude of mind? Someone dreaded having ten million and what others prayed for he escaped by poison. But indeed for a man of such perverted mentality that last drink was the best thing for him. " page 51 "Such is the fate of those who measure wealth not by the standard of reason, whose limits are fixed, but by that of a vicious life-style governed by boundless, uncontrollable caprice." page 52. In this part, Seneca was telling the story of a famous roman who spend fortunes hosting parties and banquets, that when he was down from 100 to his last 10 million (an amount that the grand majority of the people would never reach in their whole lives) he chose to poison himself.

"Nothing satisfies greed, but even a little satisfies nature." page 51

"So the man who restrains himself within the bounds set by nature will not notice poverty: the man who exceeds these bounds will be pursued by poverty however rich he is." page 52

"What mental darkness, what ignorance of the truth blinds those who, though afflicted by the fear of poverty, yet take pleasure in imitating it! " page 54

"If you consider that sexual desire was given to man not for enjoyment but for the propagation of the race, once you are free of this violent and destructive passion rooted in your vitals, every other desire will leave you undisturbed." page 55, 56

"For we are naturally disposed to admire more than anything else the man who shows fortitude in adversity." - page 56. Who are your heroes? Who do you look up to and imitate?

"I am not really free of the vices which I feared and hated, though not, on the other hand, subject to them: this puts me in a condition which is not the worst, but an extremely peevish and quarrelsome one - I am neither ill nor well." - By Serenus - a friend of Seneca - Page 68

"when something has happened which either is unworthy of me (a common experience in every human life) or cannot easily be dealt with; when unimportant things become time-consuming; I take refuge in leisure and, just like weary flocks o animals, I make my way more quickly home. I decide to restrict my life within its walls, saying, 'let no one rob me of a single day who is not going to make me an adequate return for such a loss. Let my mind be fixed on itself, cultivate itself, have no external interest - nothing that seeks the approval of another; let it cherish the tranquility that has no part in public or private concerns.' " - page 70,71. Let no one rob you of your time of leisure.

"So If you must fill your time, write something in a simple style for your own use and not for publication" page 71. Not everything you do must be for everyone. Does it not enrage you when a person rather than enjoying the moment (be it a beautiful sunset or a cheers between old friends) pops their phone out and records an insta story? I always say my instagram is boring because the best parts of life are never caught on camera. They can be faked, but the real good times are always for ourselves.

"we take too intimate a view of our own characteristics and bias always affects our judgement" page 71

"who has dares to tell himself the truth? Who even when surrounded by crowds of toadying sycophants is not his own greatest flatterer?" page 72 . Many things that are wrong with us we could alleviate by mindfulness and taking time to oneself to think. But it is not enough to ask yourself the right questions. You must also be wanting to know the answer, and be truthful to yourself.

"the final treatment, confidence in yourself and the belief that you are on the right path," page 73.

"They are all in the same category, both those who afflicted with fickleness, boredom and ceaseless change of purpose, and who always yearn for what they have left behind, and those who just yawn from apathy. There are those too who toss around like insomniacs, and keep changing their position until they find rest through sheer weariness. They keep altering the condition of their lives, and eventually stick to that one in which they are trapped not by weariness with further change but by old age. Which is too sluggish for novelty. There are those too who suffer not from moral steadfastness but from inertia, and so lack the fickleness to live as they wish, and just live as they have begun. In act there are innumerable characteristics of the malady, but one effect - dissatisfaction with oneself." page 74. Read this one twice.

"Then they are gripped by repentance for their attempt and fear of trying again, and they are undermined by the restlessness of a mind that can discover no outlet, because they can neither control nor obey their desires, by the dithering of a life that cannot see its way ahead," page 74

"All those afflictions are worse when, through hatred of their toilsome failure, men have retreated into idleness and private studies which are unbearable to a mind aspiring to public service, keen on activity, and restless by nature because of course it is short of inner resources." page 75

"In consequence, when the pleasures have been removed which busy people derive from their actual activities, the mind cannot endure the house, the solitude, the walls, and hates to observe its own isolation. From this arrises that boredom and self-dissatisfaction, that turmoil of a restless mind and gloomy and drudging endurance of our leisure, especially when we are ashamed to admit the reasons for it and our sense of shame drives the agony inward" page 75

"From this arises the state of mind of those who loathe their own leisure and complain that they have nothing to do" page 75

"For unproductive idleness nurtures malice, and because they themselves could not prosper they want everyone else to be ruined." page 75

"Hence men travel far and wide, wandering along foreign shores and making trail by land and sea of their restlessness, which always hates what is around it." page 76

"They make one journey after another and change spectacle for spectacle" page 76. Again, I have suffered from these two. It is real.

"And so we must realize that our difficulty is not the fault of the places but of ourselves. We are weak in enduring anything, and cannot put up with toil or pleasure or ourselves or anything for long." page 77

"but at all events we shall stir ourselves and not be gripped and paralysed by fear" page 82

"if you happen to live at a time when public life is hard to cope with, you will just have to claim more time for leisure and literary work, seek a safe harbour from time to time as if you were on a dangerous voyage," page 82.

"Above all it is essential to appraise oneself, because we usually overestimate our capabilities." page 83. Have you set yourself up for failure by expecting to do 1943543 and end up doing only 1 or 2?

"Then we must appraise the actual things we are attempting and match our strength to what we are going to undertake. For the performer must always be stronger than his tasks" page 83

"You must set your hands to tasks which you can finish or at least hope to finish, and avoid those which get bigger as you proceed and do not cease where you had intended." page 83

"We must be especially careful in choosing people, and deciding whether they are worth devoting a part of our lives to them, whether the sacrifice of our time makes a difference to them." page 83. It is now somewhat fashionable to label people as 'toxic'. I don't like that term at all, but I do believe there are people that bring you down and are harmful. More often though, I see that we spend time with people that don't necessarily bring you down, but that don't add anything. They don't make you grow, challenge you, support you and basically don't add anything to you. They are just there. Mediocre. These types of relationships with (not friends but) acquaintances are completely optional. It's better to spend time with ourselves relaxing in our leisure of choice.

"How much happier is the man who owes nothing to anybody except the ones he can most easily refuse, himself!" page 87

"Let us get used to banishing ostentation, and to measuring things by their qualities of function rather than display. Let food banish hunger and drink banish thirst; let sex indulge its needs;" page 87

"Let us learn to increase our self-restraint, to curb luxury, to moderate ambition, to soften anger, to regard poverty without prejudice, to practise frugality, even if many are ashamed of it, to apply to nature's needs the remedies that are cheaply available," page 88

"to aim to acquire our riches from ourselves rather than from Fortune." page 88 . I am rich in life, experience and friends. I am rich because I can dispose of my time to do as I please. Fortune is secondary. Not to be despised, but neither to be upset if one does not have it. This is slightly hypocritical from me as I am an entrepreneur and do want to be a millionaire. But I am not in a rush for it, and I am happy just being on the right track. I don't long for it now.

"The mass of books burdens the student without instructing him, and it is far better to devote yourself to a few authors than to get lost among many." page 89

"all life is a servitude. So you have to get used to your circumstances, complain about them as little as possible , and grasp whatever advantage they have to offer: no condition is so bitter that a stable mind cannot find some consolation in it." page 90

"let us not envy those who stand higher than we do: what look like towering heights are precipices." page 91. You never know what problems other people have. Many are wearing masks!

"He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a living man. But he who knows that this was the condition laid down for him at the moment of his conception will live on those terms, and at the same time he will guarantee with a similar strength of mind that no events take him by surprise." page 93

"there is only a brief hour between sitting on a throne and kneeling to another. Know, then that every condition can change, and whatever happens to anyone can happen to you too. You are rich: but are you richer than Pompey?" page 94

"The next thing to ensure is that we do not waste our energies pointlessly or in pointless activities: that is, not to ling either for what we cannot achieve, or for what, once gained, only makes us realize too late and after much excretion the futility of our desires. In other words, let our labour not be in vain and without result, nor the result unworthy of our labour;" page 95

Starts explaining that we should cut down on being around people who "always giving the impression of being busy. If you ask one of them as he comes out of a house, 'Where are you going? What do you have in mind?' he will reply, 'I really don't know; but I'll see some people, I'll do something." They wander around aimlessly looking for employment, and they do not what they intended but what they happen to run across." page 96

"It is not industry that makes men restless, but false impressions of things drive them mad. For even madmen need some hope to stir them: the outward show of some object excites them because their deluded mind cannot detect its worthlessness." page 97

"the mind must be recalled from external object into itself: it must trust in itself, rejoice in itself, admire its own things: it must withdraw as much as possible from the affairs of others and devote its attention to itself: it must not feel losses and should take a kindly view even of misfortunes." page 99 - IMPORTANT

"for sometimes we are gripped by a hatred of the human race. When you consider how rare is simplicity and how unknown is innocence, how you scarcely even find loyalty except when it is expedient, what a host of successful crimes you come across, and all the things equally hateful that men gain and lose through lust, and how ambition is now so far from setting limits to itself that it acquires a lustre from viciousness" page 100

"We must therefore school ourselves to regard all commonly held vices as not hateful but ridiculous" page 101

"For to be tormented by other people's troubles means perpetual misery, while to take delight in them is an inhuman pleasure; just as it is an empty show of kindness to weep and assume a solemn look because somebody is burying a son." page 101

" In your own troubles too, the appropriate conduct is to indulge as much grief as nature, not custom, demands: for many people weep in order to be seen weeping, though their eyes are dry as long as there is nobody looking," page 102. Don't wear a mask! Say and act how you really feel, for yourself, not for other people.

"There is also another not inconsiderable source of anxieties, if you are too concerned to assume a pose and do not reveal yourself openly to anyone, like many people whose lives are false and aimed only at outward show. For it is agonizing always to be watching yourself in fear of being caught when your usual mask has slipped." page 103. If you are acting, you will always have the fear of being found out.

"How full of pleasure is that honest and naturally unadorned simplicity that in no way hides its disposition!" page 103

"is it better to be despised for simplicity than to suffer agonies from everlasting pretence."page 103

"there is a big difference between living simply and living carelessly" page 103

"The mind should not be kept continuously at the same pitch of concentration, but given amusing diversions." page 104

"Our minds must relax: they will rise better and keener after a rest." page 104

"We must indulge the mind and from time to time allow it the leisure which is its food and strength."

"Occasionally we should even come to the point of intoxication, sinking into drink but not being totally flooded by it; for it does wash away cares, and stirs the mind to its depths, and heals sorrow just as it heals certain diseases." page 105 Yes, but also: "But we must not do this often, in case the mind acquires a bad habit;" page 106

"For we agree with greek poet that 'Sometimes it is sweet to be mad' or with Plato that 'A man sound in mind knocks in vain at the doors of poetry,' or with Aristotle that 'No great intellect has been without a touch of madness' only a mind that is deeply stirred can utter something noble and beyond the power of others." page 106. I like this one a lot, because people constantly remind me of how I am a little crazy. I am. And thats alright.

Andddddd that's all for today.

Sometimes you read something, and not only you agree with it, but you feel like these lines have always been part of you, but you just didn't know how to express it. This kept happening to me over and over with this one. I had to share it with you.

If you thought these were awesome, again, I cannot recommend this book enough.

Click here to buy the book on amazon.

I like to highlight things when I read. 98% of my reading I do on paper because I love highlighting with pen the parts I find interesting. I am not the biggest reader, but certainly above the average. I've been reading around 20 to 30 books per year for the past 4 or 5 years. I like to read a lot of non fiction, but also the odd novel here and there. This was one of the first (real) philosophy books I ever read.

Every once in a while I will do posts on good books like this one.

Sometimes reviews, sometimes quotes or even comparisons between different ones. On another post I will write down a bunch of "must reads".

Let me know what you think below or pop me a message! Do you agree with Seneca? Which quote resonated more with you? Like always, I love reading your replies.