The life given us by nature is short, but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) was a Roman orator, lawyer and statesman, and one of the most influential writers of Latin. Alongside his speeches he wrote philosophical treatises that carried Greek thought into Latin — among them On Friendship, written after the death of his closest friend. He was killed in the political violence following Caesar's death.
About this theme: Time
Time is the one theme here where every author writes from the same position — none of them had more of it than they had. Seneca devoted an essay to it, and his central claim is uncomfortable: we are not given a short life, we spend it in a way that makes it seem short.
More by Cicero
More on Time
- Lost time is never found again.— Benjamin Franklin
- The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.— Chinese Proverb
- It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.— Seneca
- The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.— Nikola Tesla
- Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.— Seneca