# Stoic Six Pack 2 €“ Consolations From a Stoic, on the Shortness of Life, Musonius Rufus, Hierocles, Meditations in Verse and the Stoics  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Seneca, Hierocles, Musonius Rufus, Marcus Aurelius, Diogenes Laërtius]] - Full Title:: Stoic Six Pack 2 €“ Consolations From a Stoic, on the Shortness of Life, Musonius Rufus, Hierocles, Meditations in Verse and the Stoics - Category: #books ## Highlights > Most people, Paulinus, complain that life is too short. To these bitter folk, life hurtles by like a runaway mare, so fast and furious that it is impossible to discern its meaning before it is too late. ([Location 1775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1775)) > I’m not just talking about impoverished plebeians or that entity referred to as the common man. Despair over the brevity of our jumbled lives is heard from those who supposedly have it all, the rich and the famous. ([Location 1777](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1777)) > The problem, Paulinus, is not that we have a short life, but that we waste time.  Life is long and there is enough of it for satisfying personal… ([Location 1781](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1781)) > But when time is squandered in the pursuit of pleasure or in vain idleness, when it is spent with no real purpose, the finality of death fast approaches and it is only then, when we are forced to, that we at last take a good hard look at how we… ([Location 1782](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1782)) > Why are people so bitter, Paulinus? Nature has been good to us, not cruel. A life well spent… ([Location 1790](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1790)) > But many men are governed by insatiable greed, or by a life devoted to meaningless tasks. Some turn to drink, others are paralyzed by laziness. One fellow is obsessed with his career and spends his days based on the decisions of others. Another, ruled by the love of business and making money, devotes all his energy to the pursuit of the deal. Some are driven mad by rage, and obsessed with violence or being macho, seemingly always hell-bent upon inflicting harm on others or being overly concerned with their own safety! Many individuals are virtually enslaved by a life of… ([Location 1791](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1791)) > Those who choose to have no real purpose in life are ever rootless and dissatisfied, tossed by their aimlessness… ([Location 1796](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1796)) > Vices entice us on all fronts, and self-indulgence impedes us from seeing the bigger picture. Lust for leisure shields our eyes to the truth and keeps us down, overwhelming our senses and… ([Location 1799](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1799)) > Casualties of vice rarely return to their former true selves. Even if they are lucky enough to break free from the shackles of addiction, like the waters of the ocean which continue to churn after a squall has passed, their lives remain in steady… ([Location 1800](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1800)) - Note: It's easier to stay out than to get out. - Mark Twain > Consider the rich and famous, those whose fortune and success turns everyone in their orbit… ([Location 1803](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1803)) > And yet to so many of them wealth and celebrity is a burden! The mere act of being rich and powerful seems to be an effort that drains them of all vitality, even the ability to speak properly. A lot of them are anemic from perpetual adulation, as if they had been deprived of oxygen by their suffocating… ([Location 1804](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1804)) > No one can be found who wants to give away his money, but among how many does each one of us give away his life? ([Location 1821](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1821)) > In protecting their wealth men are tight-fisted, but when it comes to the matter of time, in the case of the one thing in which it is wise to be parsimonious, they are actually generous to a fault. ([Location 1822](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1822)) - Note: Seneca > You live as if you will live forever, no care for your mortality ever enters your head, you pay no mind to how much time has already gone by. You waste time as if it was a limitless resource, when any moment you spend on someone else or some matter is potentially your last. You possess a fear that is all too human but have the boundless desires of a god. ([Location 1834](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1834)) > It is too late to begin living life just as it is ending! What stubborn denial of mortality to delay dreams to after your fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to plan on starting your life at a point that not everyone gets to. ([Location 1840](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1840)) > The god-like Augustus, a man whom Fortune blessed more than any other, never stopped praying for rest and to gain release from public affairs; everything he spoke about always got back to this topic – his desire for a peaceful life. ([Location 1846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1846)) > This was the happy, if perhaps vain, consolation with which Augustus would lighten his labors – that one day he would have time to live for himself. ([Location 1847](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1847)) > The time you have, the experience of which is relative, although of course it feels like it is rushing away, by definition escapes from you quickly; because you don’t grab it firmly enough, you neither hold back nor cause to delay the fastest moving thing in the world. You let it slip away as if it were something unimportant that could easily be replaced. ([Location 1890](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1890)) > Finally, it is universally acknowledged that no single worthwhile goal can be successfully pursued by a man who is occupied with many tasks – lawyer, teacher, whomever - because the mind, when its focus is split, absorbs little in depth and rejects everything that is, so to speak, jammed into it. ([Location 1902](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1902)) > It takes all of our life to learn how to live, and – something that may surprise you more – it takes just as long to learn how to die. ([Location 1905](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1905)) > We all rush through life torn between a desire for the future and a weariness of the present. ([Location 1924](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1924)) > But he who devotes his time to his own needs, who plans out every day as if it were his last, neither longs for nor fears for tomorrow. ([Location 1925](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1925)) > How many new pleasures can any hour bring? They are all known and all have been enjoyed to the max. ([Location 1926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1926)) > Fate will dole out the remainder of a man’s time as she chooses. A man’s past is forever set in stone. ([Location 1926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1926)) > A grey-haired wrinkled man has not necessarily lived long. More accurately, he has existed long. ([Location 1929](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1929)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Seneca On the Brevity of Life > It always amazes me to see men demanding time from others and those from whom they ask it indulging them. Both parties focus on the matter of the request for time, neither of them on the time itself; as if what is asked for were nothing, what is given, nothing. Men are frivolous with the most valuable thing in the world, blind to its value because it is intangible, because it can not be seen, and for this reason it is considered a very cheap thing – even of almost no value at all. ([Location 1934](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1934)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > But no one places as much value on time; all spend it grandly as if it cost nothing. ([Location 1938](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1938)) > Observe how these same people with nothing but time on their hands run in haste to the doctor if they get sick and the threat of death suddenly appears on the horizon. See how ready they are, when facing death, to sell all they own in order to keep living! Such is the paradox of human nature. ([Location 1939](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1939)) > Noiselessly it will pass; it will not be slowed by government decree, or by the roar of an entire population. With the same speed that it began, it will continue; never slowing or reversing. And what does this tell us? You have been occupied while life hurtled past you. Meanwhile the grim reaper is knocking on your door, and, like it or not, you must let him in. ([Location 1949](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1949)) > Behold how the greatest of poets laments, and, as if inspired by the voice of the gods, sings the oh-so poignant strain: The sunniest day in a miserable mortal’s life Is always the first to fly. ([Location 1958](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1958)) > “Why do you wait,” asks he. “Why are you idle? If you don’t seize the day, it escapes.” ([Location 1960](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1960)) > A clear conscience gives the tranquil mind power to explore all the parts of its existence; but the mind that is preoccupied, as if burdened by a yoke, cannot turn and look back. ([Location 1989](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1989)) > Frail old codgers beg the gods for a few more years. They lie to themselves that they are younger than they are, finding solace in self-deception, as if they had succeeded in tricking fate herself. ([Location 1998](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1998)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > They cry out that they have been fools, because they never really lived, and vow to live a true life if spared from their disease. Too late they realize what time they wasted pursuing worthless things, and how so much hard work seeking happiness from materialism was in vain. ([Location 2001](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2001)) > What would you say of those men who waste time getting their hair cut once week, debating how each lock should appear, while every stray strand is drawn from one side to the other over his forehead? How angry they get if the barber makes a mistake, as if he were shearing a man! How they become enflamed if any of their mane is cropped unevenly, if the right ringlets do not fall into place just so! Which of these fops would care more if his country was in disarray than his hair? Who is not more worried about having his head look good rather than it be safe? ([Location 2014](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2014)) > And the parties they throw, ye gods! How carefully they place the silver, how splendidly attired are their handsome slave-boys, how they gorge on fatty wild boar and rich game birds, at what speed do their slick attractive servants tend to people’s needs, how deftly are the plump offerings carved into delectable slices, how discreetly do the liveried boys wipe the drool from the mouths of the inebriated. This is how they live the good life, but their evil side is ever present and they can neither eat nor drink without such conspicuous consumption. These types are not so much the leisured class as the ‘littered class’ – hand-carried from one inconsequential meeting to the next in a cushioned chair and litter, and always perfectly punctual for their pampered voyage about town - as if it were against the law to miss an appointment. They must be reminded when to bathe, when to swim, when to dine; so cushy are their lives that their diseased minds are incapable of prompting them to eat! I hear that a certain member of this ‘littered’ class when raised by hand from his bath-tub and settled into his throne asked: “Am I sitting down now?” Do you think this same fellow knows whether he is alive or dead? It’s hard to say if I pity him more if he was fully aware of his existence, or if he was just faking it. ([Location 2021](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2021)) > It would be tedious to discuss all those sad souls who spend their lives playing chess or sports or lying sprawled on their backs worshipping Sol. They are not free, but trapped by their love of fleeting pleasures. For example, without a doubt there are many triflers who waste time on pointless literary conundrums, of whom even among the Romans there is now an ever growing number. ([Location 2039](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2039)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > It used to be that just the Greeks frittered away afternoons discussing how many oarsmen Ulysses had, whether The Iliad or The Odyssey was composed first, whether they were written by the same person, and various other literary debates of this ilk, issues which do nothing for the soul if considered alone and might even make you look foolish if you published them. Behold how this obsession with ephemera now flourishes in Rome. I hear people babbling about the first Roman general to do such and such, how Duilius was the first to win a victory at sea, Dentatus the first to use elephants in a triumph, et cetera. Even if it is obvious that some piece of information has no value, most of the popular trivia is usually related to matters of interest to Romans, and thus wins our attention by its apparent relevancy to our lives, despite its superficiality. We may excuse those who first started this naval gazing and got the Romans to jump on ship. ([Location 2042](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2042)) > What is the point of knowing, for example, that Pompey was the first to stage a fight between elephants and lowly men in the Circus in a mockery of real battle? A head of state tarnishes the reputation of good Romans with such vulgar spectacle. Do condemned men not already fight to the death? Is that not enough? Must they now be crushed alive by monsters? It would be better that such events pass into oblivion rather than risk another rich man learning of the inhuman spectacle and becoming jealous. O, how blinded man is made by money. ([Location 2055](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2055)) > The only really leisured people are those who devote time to acquiring true knowledge rather than trivia.  Such people are not content to live ‘in the moment’ exclusively but show a keen awareness of history, of all the years that have gone before them and they know that the amount of time they have left is uncertain and finite. ([Location 2070](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2070)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Unless we are complete ingrates, the lives of all those men that preceded us should be seen as sacred. Their collective existence paved the way for our own time on Earth. ([Location 2073](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2073)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Because of the efforts of our ancestors we have moved further from darkness into light. We are free to spend time in any era, to roam beyond the narrow confines of the mind, beyond the limits of human capability to explore the vast ocean of time stretched before us. ([Location 2074](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2074)) > We may dispute with Socrates, question Carneades, find equanimity with Epicurus, transcend human nature with the Stoics and indulge it with the Cynics. When life permits us to commune with every era, why not turn the tables on this absurdly short and fleeting span of time we are endowed with by spending some of it in the past, which is boundless and inhabited by men better than ourselves? ([Location 2076](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2076)) > It is fair to say that those who make Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus and other giants of philosophy their daily companions will be more fully engaged in a rewarding life. None of these friends will be too busy to welcome you inside their home, none will fail to leave his caller feeling refreshed after an appointment. Any man can spend time with them day or night. ([Location 2085](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2085)) > None of these men will bring about your death any time sooner, but rather they will teach you how to die. None of them will shorten your lifespan, but each will add the wisdom of his years to yours. In other words, there is nothing dangerous about talking to these people and it won’t cost you a penny. ([Location 2089](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2089)) > They say ‘you can’t choose your parents,’ that they have been given to us by chance; but the good news is we can choose to be the sons of whomever we desire. There are many respectable fathers scattered across the centuries to choose from. Select a genius and make yourself their adopted son. You could even inherit their name and make claim to be a true descendant and then go forth and share this wealth of knowledge with others. ([Location 2094](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2094)) > These men will show you the way to immortality, and raise you to heights from which no man can be cast down. This is the only way to extend mortality – truly, by transforming time into immortality. Honors, statues and all other mighty monuments to man’s ambition carved in stone will crumble but the wisdom of the past is indestructible. Age cannot wither nor destroy philosophy which serves all generations. Its vitality is strengthened by each new generation’s contribution to it. The Philosopher alone is unfettered by the confines of humanity. He lives forever, like a god. He embraces memory, utilizes the present and anticipates with relish what is to come. He makes his time on Earth longer by merging past, present and future into one. ([Location 2097](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2097)) > Everything we have is by chance and the higher up in life you go, the greater the fall is that awaits you. ([Location 2127](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2127)) > How miserable must be the lives of those folk who labor so hard for something that once gained they must work even harder to keep. ([Location 2128](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2128)) > Life is exhausting, dear Paulinus. Steer away from the tempest of busy time and find a tranquil harbor to cruise into. ([Location 2141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2141)) > Remember you are endowed with a powerful mind, designed to comprehend the most challenging subjects. ([Location 2148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2148)) > Meantime, the busy steal and are stolen from; they interrupt and annoy each other, making each other’s lives miserable and getting nothing from all this hullabaloo, no profit nor pleasure, and no benefit to the improvement of one’s mind.  Everyone is in denial about death and we all have high hopes for our time on Earth. Some men even prepare for whatever lies after death – a necropolis of tombs, countless public dedications, blazing funeral pyres that can be seen from the stars and ostentatious funerals worthy of demi-gods. But in the end, their funerals were just like their lives – over in a short burst of flames. ([Location 2185](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2185)) # Stoic Six Pack 2 €“ Consolations From a Stoic, on the Shortness of Life, Musonius Rufus, Hierocles, Meditations in Verse and the Stoics  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Seneca, Hierocles, Musonius Rufus, Marcus Aurelius, Diogenes Laërtius]] - Full Title:: Stoic Six Pack 2 €“ Consolations From a Stoic, on the Shortness of Life, Musonius Rufus, Hierocles, Meditations in Verse and the Stoics - Category: #books ## Highlights > Most people, Paulinus, complain that life is too short. To these bitter folk, life hurtles by like a runaway mare, so fast and furious that it is impossible to discern its meaning before it is too late. ([Location 1775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1775)) > I’m not just talking about impoverished plebeians or that entity referred to as the common man. Despair over the brevity of our jumbled lives is heard from those who supposedly have it all, the rich and the famous. ([Location 1777](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1777)) > The problem, Paulinus, is not that we have a short life, but that we waste time.  Life is long and there is enough of it for satisfying personal… ([Location 1781](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1781)) > But when time is squandered in the pursuit of pleasure or in vain idleness, when it is spent with no real purpose, the finality of death fast approaches and it is only then, when we are forced to, that we at last take a good hard look at how we… ([Location 1782](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1782)) > Why are people so bitter, Paulinus? Nature has been good to us, not cruel. A life well spent… ([Location 1790](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1790)) > But many men are governed by insatiable greed, or by a life devoted to meaningless tasks. Some turn to drink, others are paralyzed by laziness. One fellow is obsessed with his career and spends his days based on the decisions of others. Another, ruled by the love of business and making money, devotes all his energy to the pursuit of the deal. Some are driven mad by rage, and obsessed with violence or being macho, seemingly always hell-bent upon inflicting harm on others or being overly concerned with their own safety! Many individuals are virtually enslaved by a life of… ([Location 1791](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1791)) > Those who choose to have no real purpose in life are ever rootless and dissatisfied, tossed by their aimlessness… ([Location 1796](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1796)) > Vices entice us on all fronts, and self-indulgence impedes us from seeing the bigger picture. Lust for leisure shields our eyes to the truth and keeps us down, overwhelming our senses and… ([Location 1799](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1799)) > Casualties of vice rarely return to their former true selves. Even if they are lucky enough to break free from the shackles of addiction, like the waters of the ocean which continue to churn after a squall has passed, their lives remain in steady… ([Location 1800](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1800)) - Note: It's easier to stay out than to get out. - Mark Twain > Consider the rich and famous, those whose fortune and success turns everyone in their orbit… ([Location 1803](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1803)) > And yet to so many of them wealth and celebrity is a burden! The mere act of being rich and powerful seems to be an effort that drains them of all vitality, even the ability to speak properly. A lot of them are anemic from perpetual adulation, as if they had been deprived of oxygen by their suffocating… ([Location 1804](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1804)) > No one can be found who wants to give away his money, but among how many does each one of us give away his life? ([Location 1821](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1821)) > In protecting their wealth men are tight-fisted, but when it comes to the matter of time, in the case of the one thing in which it is wise to be parsimonious, they are actually generous to a fault. ([Location 1822](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1822)) - Note: Seneca > You live as if you will live forever, no care for your mortality ever enters your head, you pay no mind to how much time has already gone by. You waste time as if it was a limitless resource, when any moment you spend on someone else or some matter is potentially your last. You possess a fear that is all too human but have the boundless desires of a god. ([Location 1834](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1834)) > It is too late to begin living life just as it is ending! What stubborn denial of mortality to delay dreams to after your fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to plan on starting your life at a point that not everyone gets to. ([Location 1840](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1840)) > The god-like Augustus, a man whom Fortune blessed more than any other, never stopped praying for rest and to gain release from public affairs; everything he spoke about always got back to this topic – his desire for a peaceful life. ([Location 1846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1846)) > This was the happy, if perhaps vain, consolation with which Augustus would lighten his labors – that one day he would have time to live for himself. ([Location 1847](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1847)) > The time you have, the experience of which is relative, although of course it feels like it is rushing away, by definition escapes from you quickly; because you don’t grab it firmly enough, you neither hold back nor cause to delay the fastest moving thing in the world. You let it slip away as if it were something unimportant that could easily be replaced. ([Location 1890](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1890)) > Finally, it is universally acknowledged that no single worthwhile goal can be successfully pursued by a man who is occupied with many tasks – lawyer, teacher, whomever - because the mind, when its focus is split, absorbs little in depth and rejects everything that is, so to speak, jammed into it. ([Location 1902](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1902)) > It takes all of our life to learn how to live, and – something that may surprise you more – it takes just as long to learn how to die. ([Location 1905](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1905)) > We all rush through life torn between a desire for the future and a weariness of the present. ([Location 1924](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1924)) > But he who devotes his time to his own needs, who plans out every day as if it were his last, neither longs for nor fears for tomorrow. ([Location 1925](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1925)) > How many new pleasures can any hour bring? They are all known and all have been enjoyed to the max. ([Location 1926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1926)) > Fate will dole out the remainder of a man’s time as she chooses. A man’s past is forever set in stone. ([Location 1926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1926)) > A grey-haired wrinkled man has not necessarily lived long. More accurately, he has existed long. ([Location 1929](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1929)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Seneca On the Brevity of Life > It always amazes me to see men demanding time from others and those from whom they ask it indulging them. Both parties focus on the matter of the request for time, neither of them on the time itself; as if what is asked for were nothing, what is given, nothing. Men are frivolous with the most valuable thing in the world, blind to its value because it is intangible, because it can not be seen, and for this reason it is considered a very cheap thing – even of almost no value at all. ([Location 1934](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1934)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > But no one places as much value on time; all spend it grandly as if it cost nothing. ([Location 1938](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1938)) > Observe how these same people with nothing but time on their hands run in haste to the doctor if they get sick and the threat of death suddenly appears on the horizon. See how ready they are, when facing death, to sell all they own in order to keep living! Such is the paradox of human nature. ([Location 1939](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1939)) > Noiselessly it will pass; it will not be slowed by government decree, or by the roar of an entire population. With the same speed that it began, it will continue; never slowing or reversing. And what does this tell us? You have been occupied while life hurtled past you. Meanwhile the grim reaper is knocking on your door, and, like it or not, you must let him in. ([Location 1949](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1949)) > Behold how the greatest of poets laments, and, as if inspired by the voice of the gods, sings the oh-so poignant strain: The sunniest day in a miserable mortal’s life Is always the first to fly. ([Location 1958](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1958)) > “Why do you wait,” asks he. “Why are you idle? If you don’t seize the day, it escapes.” ([Location 1960](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1960)) > A clear conscience gives the tranquil mind power to explore all the parts of its existence; but the mind that is preoccupied, as if burdened by a yoke, cannot turn and look back. ([Location 1989](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1989)) > Frail old codgers beg the gods for a few more years. They lie to themselves that they are younger than they are, finding solace in self-deception, as if they had succeeded in tricking fate herself. ([Location 1998](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=1998)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > They cry out that they have been fools, because they never really lived, and vow to live a true life if spared from their disease. Too late they realize what time they wasted pursuing worthless things, and how so much hard work seeking happiness from materialism was in vain. ([Location 2001](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2001)) > What would you say of those men who waste time getting their hair cut once week, debating how each lock should appear, while every stray strand is drawn from one side to the other over his forehead? How angry they get if the barber makes a mistake, as if he were shearing a man! How they become enflamed if any of their mane is cropped unevenly, if the right ringlets do not fall into place just so! Which of these fops would care more if his country was in disarray than his hair? Who is not more worried about having his head look good rather than it be safe? ([Location 2014](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2014)) > And the parties they throw, ye gods! How carefully they place the silver, how splendidly attired are their handsome slave-boys, how they gorge on fatty wild boar and rich game birds, at what speed do their slick attractive servants tend to people’s needs, how deftly are the plump offerings carved into delectable slices, how discreetly do the liveried boys wipe the drool from the mouths of the inebriated. This is how they live the good life, but their evil side is ever present and they can neither eat nor drink without such conspicuous consumption. These types are not so much the leisured class as the ‘littered class’ – hand-carried from one inconsequential meeting to the next in a cushioned chair and litter, and always perfectly punctual for their pampered voyage about town - as if it were against the law to miss an appointment. They must be reminded when to bathe, when to swim, when to dine; so cushy are their lives that their diseased minds are incapable of prompting them to eat! I hear that a certain member of this ‘littered’ class when raised by hand from his bath-tub and settled into his throne asked: “Am I sitting down now?” Do you think this same fellow knows whether he is alive or dead? It’s hard to say if I pity him more if he was fully aware of his existence, or if he was just faking it. ([Location 2021](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2021)) > It would be tedious to discuss all those sad souls who spend their lives playing chess or sports or lying sprawled on their backs worshipping Sol. They are not free, but trapped by their love of fleeting pleasures. For example, without a doubt there are many triflers who waste time on pointless literary conundrums, of whom even among the Romans there is now an ever growing number. ([Location 2039](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2039)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > It used to be that just the Greeks frittered away afternoons discussing how many oarsmen Ulysses had, whether The Iliad or The Odyssey was composed first, whether they were written by the same person, and various other literary debates of this ilk, issues which do nothing for the soul if considered alone and might even make you look foolish if you published them. Behold how this obsession with ephemera now flourishes in Rome. I hear people babbling about the first Roman general to do such and such, how Duilius was the first to win a victory at sea, Dentatus the first to use elephants in a triumph, et cetera. Even if it is obvious that some piece of information has no value, most of the popular trivia is usually related to matters of interest to Romans, and thus wins our attention by its apparent relevancy to our lives, despite its superficiality. We may excuse those who first started this naval gazing and got the Romans to jump on ship. ([Location 2042](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2042)) > What is the point of knowing, for example, that Pompey was the first to stage a fight between elephants and lowly men in the Circus in a mockery of real battle? A head of state tarnishes the reputation of good Romans with such vulgar spectacle. Do condemned men not already fight to the death? Is that not enough? Must they now be crushed alive by monsters? It would be better that such events pass into oblivion rather than risk another rich man learning of the inhuman spectacle and becoming jealous. O, how blinded man is made by money. ([Location 2055](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2055)) > The only really leisured people are those who devote time to acquiring true knowledge rather than trivia.  Such people are not content to live ‘in the moment’ exclusively but show a keen awareness of history, of all the years that have gone before them and they know that the amount of time they have left is uncertain and finite. ([Location 2070](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2070)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Unless we are complete ingrates, the lives of all those men that preceded us should be seen as sacred. Their collective existence paved the way for our own time on Earth. ([Location 2073](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2073)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Because of the efforts of our ancestors we have moved further from darkness into light. We are free to spend time in any era, to roam beyond the narrow confines of the mind, beyond the limits of human capability to explore the vast ocean of time stretched before us. ([Location 2074](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2074)) > We may dispute with Socrates, question Carneades, find equanimity with Epicurus, transcend human nature with the Stoics and indulge it with the Cynics. When life permits us to commune with every era, why not turn the tables on this absurdly short and fleeting span of time we are endowed with by spending some of it in the past, which is boundless and inhabited by men better than ourselves? ([Location 2076](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2076)) > It is fair to say that those who make Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus and other giants of philosophy their daily companions will be more fully engaged in a rewarding life. None of these friends will be too busy to welcome you inside their home, none will fail to leave his caller feeling refreshed after an appointment. Any man can spend time with them day or night. ([Location 2085](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2085)) > None of these men will bring about your death any time sooner, but rather they will teach you how to die. None of them will shorten your lifespan, but each will add the wisdom of his years to yours. In other words, there is nothing dangerous about talking to these people and it won’t cost you a penny. ([Location 2089](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2089)) > They say ‘you can’t choose your parents,’ that they have been given to us by chance; but the good news is we can choose to be the sons of whomever we desire. There are many respectable fathers scattered across the centuries to choose from. Select a genius and make yourself their adopted son. You could even inherit their name and make claim to be a true descendant and then go forth and share this wealth of knowledge with others. ([Location 2094](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2094)) > These men will show you the way to immortality, and raise you to heights from which no man can be cast down. This is the only way to extend mortality – truly, by transforming time into immortality. Honors, statues and all other mighty monuments to man’s ambition carved in stone will crumble but the wisdom of the past is indestructible. Age cannot wither nor destroy philosophy which serves all generations. Its vitality is strengthened by each new generation’s contribution to it. The Philosopher alone is unfettered by the confines of humanity. He lives forever, like a god. He embraces memory, utilizes the present and anticipates with relish what is to come. He makes his time on Earth longer by merging past, present and future into one. ([Location 2097](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2097)) > Everything we have is by chance and the higher up in life you go, the greater the fall is that awaits you. ([Location 2127](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2127)) > How miserable must be the lives of those folk who labor so hard for something that once gained they must work even harder to keep. ([Location 2128](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2128)) > Life is exhausting, dear Paulinus. Steer away from the tempest of busy time and find a tranquil harbor to cruise into. ([Location 2141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2141)) > Remember you are endowed with a powerful mind, designed to comprehend the most challenging subjects. ([Location 2148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2148)) > Meantime, the busy steal and are stolen from; they interrupt and annoy each other, making each other’s lives miserable and getting nothing from all this hullabaloo, no profit nor pleasure, and no benefit to the improvement of one’s mind.  Everyone is in denial about death and we all have high hopes for our time on Earth. Some men even prepare for whatever lies after death – a necropolis of tombs, countless public dedications, blazing funeral pyres that can be seen from the stars and ostentatious funerals worthy of demi-gods. But in the end, their funerals were just like their lives – over in a short burst of flames. ([Location 2185](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VXI2T6Q&location=2185))