Don't forget to live. Seneca, Epistles 5.45.12-13
Seneca
advises Lucilius to live now. To make decisions that matter now, and
follow through with action now. Time is not waiting for us; the
moments we neglect to use are lost. This is not for Seneca an
occasion for despair, but inspiration to get out now and do things
that matter to us.
Quid
ergo? non eo potius curam transferes, ut ostendas omnibus magno
temporis impendio quaeri supervacua et multos transisse vitam dum
vitae instrumenta conquirunt? Recognosce singulos, considera
universos: nullius non vita spectat in crastinum. Quid in hoc sit
mali quaeris? Infinitum. Non enim vivunt sed victuri sunt: omnia
differunt. Etiamsi attenderemus, tamen nos vita praecurreret; nunc
vero cunctantes quasi aliena transcurrit et ultimo die finitur, omni
perit. Sed ne epistulae modum excedam, quae non debet sinistram manum
legentis implere, in alium diem hanc litem cum dialecticis differam
nimium subtilibus et hoc solum curantibus, non et hoc. Vale.
What
to do, then? Shall you not rather redirect your anxious attention,
aiming to show everyone that most of our time is wasted in pursuit of
utterly empty things, and that many leave this life still chasing
after the means to continue it? Look closely at the individuals near
you, and consider the condition of everyone in the world: there is no
person whose life does not look always to the morrow. What is the
evil in this, you ask? It is too much for us to reckon. People do not
live; instead, they are always about to live. They put off
everything. Even if we were to reach after life, hastening ardently
to attain her, still she would run ahead of us. As things are,
however, she dashes by like a total stranger, while we dither, and in
our final day we lose the hope deferred each and every day before.
But I will defer to another day my quarrel with pedants, who care
only for one thing and examine it too closely. I don't want to exceed
the proper limit of an epistle, which should not entirely fill the
reader's left hand (†). Farewell.
---
(†)
The original version of Seneca's letter would be a scroll, rolled out
between the hands.