Philosophy
On the Shortness of Life
CevvelaPhilosophy
On the Shortness of Life
Seneca · İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları · 49 BCE
7
Cevvela Score
7.2 (2.463 oy)
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Summary
The immortal letter in which the Stoic philosopher Seneca answers those who complain that life is short by showing that life is not short at all — it is we who squander it recklessly on needless business, on our vanity and on our ambitions.
Quotes from Cevvela
“Life is not short; we make it short.”
“You are more generous toward those who want to steal your time than toward those who steal your money.”
“While people are preparing to live, life slips away.”
“Only those who live in the present, without being slaves to the past or anxious about the future, truly live.”
“You should fear not dying, but never having truly lived.”
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Reader Score: 7.2 / 10(2.463 votes)
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Seneca demolished the cheap self-help nonsense about time management two thousand years in advance. Life is not short; it is we who throw it away chasing careers and seeking other people’s approval. When Cevvela says “awaken your gem,” it is saying this: do not waste the single breath you have been given. You come to understand that the overtime in which you sell your soul for money, and the hours you spend numbed in front of a screen, are no different from suicide. Whoever is not the master of their own time is always someone else’s slave. You are not living; you are only passing the time.