This is our big mistake: to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death”

Happy the man, and happy he alone, He, who can call to-day his own: He who, secure within, can say: “To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv’d to-day.” Those words sound modern, don’t they? Yet they were written thirty years before Christ was born, by the Roman poet Horace.

“It’s not at all that we have too short a time to live, but that we squander a great deal of it. Life is long enough, and it’s given in sufficient measure to do many great things if we spend it well. But when it’s poured down the drain of luxury and neglect, when it’s employed to no good end, we’re finally driven to see that it has passed by before

Ciascuno fa correre precipitosamente la propria vita, non pensa che al domani e si annoia dell’oggi. Solo colui che dedica a sé tutto il proprio tempo e dispone di ogni suo giorno come se fosse l’intera vita non desidera quello che verrà né lo teme. Qual nuovo piacere infatti potrà mai portare l’ora seguente se tutto si è già conosciuto e tutto pro

“How many have laid waste to your life when you weren’t aware of what you were losing, how much was wasted in pointless grief, foolish joy, greedy desire, and social amusements—how little of your own was left to you. You will realize you are dying before your time!” —SENECA, ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 3.3b