One day is equal to all. Seneca, Epistles 1.12.6-8
“One day is equal to all.” Seneca muses on how times change, and don't, as we watch them.
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(†) From what I can see, the MSS readings here make more sense than anything offered by editors.
(‡) Cicero remembers that the Ephesian philosopher was called σκοτεινός, i.e. obscure (On Ends 2.5).
Tota aetas partibus constat et orbes habet circumductos maiores minoribus. Est aliquis qui omnis complectatur et cingat; hic pertinet a natali ad diem extremum. Est alter qui annos adulescentiae excludit. Est qui totam pueritiam ambitu suo adstringit. Est deinde per se annus in se omnia continens tempora, quorum multiplicatione vita componitur. Mensis artiore praecingitur circulo. Angustissimum habet dies gyrum, sed et hic ab initio ad exitum venit, ab ortu ad occasum. Ideo Heraclitus, cui cognomen fecit orationis obscuritas, unus inquit dies par omni est. Hoc alius aliter excepit. Dixit enim parem esse horis, nec mentitur; nam si dies est tempus viginti et quattuor horarum, necesse est omnes inter se dies pares esse, quia nox habet quod dies perdidit. Alius ait parem esse unum diem omnibus similitudine; nihil enim habet longissimi temporis spatium quod non et in uno die invenias, lucem et noctem, et in alternos mundi vices plura facit ista, non alias contractior, alias productior (†). Itaque sic ordinandus est dies omnis tamquam cogat agmen et consummet atque expleat vitam.
All our lifetime consists of parts, and holds larger periods punctuated by smaller. There is one period embracing and girding the others: this is the entire life, extending from the day of birth until the last day. Another one separates the years of youth, and there is yet another comprising all the childhood. Then there is the year itself, containing within its period all the times whose iteration composes life. Each month is confined to a shorter circuit. Finally, each day holds the briefest career, but it too passes from beginning to end, rising and then setting with the sun. Thus Heraclitus, who made a name for himself uttering riddles (‡), says, “One day is equal to all.” Each man solves this riddle for himself, differently. One says that days are equal in terms of hours, and this is no lie. For if the day is a period of twenty-four hours, then all days must be equal to each other, just as the night necessarily holds whatever is lost to daylight. Another says that one day is equal to all by their mutual resemblance—for even the longest space of time has nothing you won't find in a single day, by light and night, and new revolutions of the world produce more of the same phenomena, so that there is no difference in quality between brief and extensive ages. And thus we must rule each day, governing it to drive the course of our life toward consummation and fulfilment.
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(†) From what I can see, the MSS readings here make more sense than anything offered by editors.
(‡) Cicero remembers that the Ephesian philosopher was called σκοτεινός, i.e. obscure (On Ends 2.5).