On the Shortness of Life, by Seneca

Author

Matt Karamazov
January 22, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes

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But hey, my book recommendation today is all about the shortness of life, so let’s not spend any more time talking about rules or calculators.

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Now, let’s get back to today’s book!

As far as moral essays go, this one from the ancient Roman statesman Seneca is one of my favorites. Written in 49CE, it’s addressed to his father-in-law Paulinus, whom he advises about how to expand time, prevent it from being squandered on nonsense, and use it in the best way we can. 

I read this book in 2015, and since then, I’ve probably taken about 5 full years of my life back due to taking Seneca’s advice and rejecting everything that diminishes the value of my time, and placing my focus squarely on where I’m able to experience true fulfillment and purpose. 

Spoiler Alert: It’s NOT where modern society keeps dragging your focus back to.

Nothing against society - I love society! - but it’s not set up to help you be happy or fulfilled in any way. Pretty much the opposite, in fact. 

You’re born and bred to keep the system going: pay attention, get good grades, get into a good school, pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, hundreds of thousands more to experience “the dream of home ownership,” etc. Again, nothing against education or owning your own house. It’s just that these things are expensive; in money, yes, but also in time. And society’s answer doesn’t have to be your own.

What Thoreau said is true: the price of anything is the amount of life you’re required to exchange for it, and so you can think of On the Shortness of Life as a collection of Seneca’s best arguments against trading your life away for trivialities. 

It’ll teach you the true value of time, how little we actually need to acquire and possess in order to experience peace of mind, and how you can defend yourself against the priorities of those who would steal your most important possession and give you back something infinitely less valuable in return.

“Life is long if you know how to use it.”

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much.”

“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.”

“Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.”

“But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”

“The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”

“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.”

“No one could endure lasting adversity if it continued to have the same force as when it first hit us. We are all tied to Fortune, some by a loose and golden chain, and others by a tight one of baser metal: but what does it matter? We are all held in the same captivity, and those who have bound others are themselves in bonds - unless you think perhaps that the left-hand chain is lighter.”

“I imagine many people could have achieved wisdom if they had not imagined they had already achieved it.”

“The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

“So you must match time’s swiftness with your speed in using it, and you must drink quickly as though from a rapid stream that will not always flow.”

Currently, I don’t have a complete breakdown of On the Shortness of Life published on the Stairway to Wisdom (my library of expert book breakdowns), but below I’ve listed some similar breakdowns that you may enjoy instead.

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Forced to commit suicide by a psychopathic dictator, the great Stoic philosopher Seneca never once abandoned his belief that we can maintain our peace of mind in any situation. And in this book, he shows us how it's done.

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All the best,

Matt Karamazov

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