Time is not ours. Seneca, Epistles 4.32.3-4
Seneca advises Lucilius to find a moment of peace in which to renounce his mortal possessions voluntarily. If we cannot learn to surrender deliberately to the death that awaits, we will not be at peace with the world, no matter how we live, or where. The peace of resignation—of dedication to the best effort we can actually make, and then release—will not come to those who refuse to seek it. Propera ergo, Lucili carissime, et cogita quantum additurus celeritati fueris, si a tergo hostis instaret, si equitem adventare suspicareris ac fugientium premere vestigia. Fit hoc, premeris: accelera et evade, perduc te in tutum et subinde considera quam pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortem, deinde exspectare securum reliquam temporis sui partem, nihil sibi, in possessione beatae vitae positum, quae beatior non fit si longior. O quando illud videbis tempus quo scies tempus ad te non pertinere, quo tranquillus placidusque eris et crastini neglegens et in summa tui satietate! Hasten then, my