For the Latin song, see the article "De Brevitate Vitae".De Brevitate Vitae (English: On the Shortness of Life) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, sometime around the year 49 AD, to his father-in-law Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that people waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives people enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly. In general, time is best used by living in the present moment in pursuit of the intentional, purposeful life. Similar ideas can be found in Seneca's treatise De Otio (On Leisure) and discussion of these themes can often be found in his Letters to Lucilius (letter 49, 101, etc.).
It talks a lot about death, but in a positive way. It doesn't dread death, it talks about how to live in a way that you won't dread death. It speaks to mindfulness and self-awareness. It's a little heavy on the Roman references, but it's still relatable.
Certainly wordier than Marcus, but the content is solid. There's a reason it's a classic.
“So it is: we are not given a short life, but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it.”
This is the kind of book that leaves an impacting, feverish vestige on the mind of whoever reads it. To quote Seneca’s wise statements is to quote the entire work. But the best part has got to be the last, the letter entitled On Tranquility of Mind addressed to Serenus who describes his ailment with a brilliant metaphor:
“I am harried not by a tempest but by sea-sickness.”
And I guess we can all relate to Serenus. Vacillating between unbound principles, mind unsettled and constantly whirling in eddies of overarching thoughts and indecisions. When there doesn’t seem to be anything fundamentally awry, yet you are discontent, agitated, one foot planted on ground while the other hovers above the abyss.
“Living is the least important activity of …
“So it is: we are not given a short life, but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it.”
This is the kind of book that leaves an impacting, feverish vestige on the mind of whoever reads it. To quote Seneca’s wise statements is to quote the entire work. But the best part has got to be the last, the letter entitled On Tranquility of Mind addressed to Serenus who describes his ailment with a brilliant metaphor:
“I am harried not by a tempest but by sea-sickness.”
And I guess we can all relate to Serenus. Vacillating between unbound principles, mind unsettled and constantly whirling in eddies of overarching thoughts and indecisions. When there doesn’t seem to be anything fundamentally awry, yet you are discontent, agitated, one foot planted on ground while the other hovers above the abyss.
“Living is the least important activity of the preoccupied man; yet there is nothing which is harder to learn.”
…and learn how to apply.
