Originally entitled De Brevitate Vitae, the following essay On the Shortness of Life was written by the Stoic Philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, aka Seneca the Younger, sometime around the year 49 AD, to his father-in-law Paulinus.
In it, Seneca discusses the nature of time, and how people waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. He suggests that we have enough time to do what is really important, if we allot it properly.
Here’s a short summary:
• People are constantly preoccupied with something (often greed, labor, ambition, etc)
• There are even problems associated with great wealth
• Many people ever slow down enough to find their true selves
• We are never content and often chase random desires and ambitions
without ever formulating a consistent purpose
And, consider just one of his renowned quotes:
“Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”
Anyway, since I’ve referenced quotes from this essay in other articles—such as Are You A Time Thief? (here) and Carpe Diem! (on my author site)—I finally decided I should go ahead and publish it as a free ebook, which can be downloaded from our Free Ebook Library.
Enjoy!
