Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
Letter 49: On the shortness of life
Letter 49 begins with the sight of Naples and Pompeii and the speed at which time flies, seen most clearly by those who look back.
A life this short cannot be spent on verbal puzzles; Seneca asks philosophy for the one lesson that counts, to stop fleeing death and to stop letting life escape.
From the letter
Infinitely swift is the flight of time, as those see more clearly who are looking backwards.
For this reason I am all the more angry that some men claim the major portion of this time for superfluous things,—time which, no matter how carefully it is guarded, cannot suffice even for necessary things.
Bring it to pass that I shall cease trying to escape from death, and that life may cease to escape from me.
Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life’s length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little.
It is not everywhere that death shows himself so near at hand; yet everywhere he is as near at hand.
Coverage
Our editions hold 30 letters of 124 in Richard Mott Gummere’s translation (1917–1925); 29 of them have a page here, those that Joseph Baillard’s French translation (1861) also contains.
Seneca and Epictetus are in Stoic+ — 2 passages of this letter, each with its reference; Marcus Aurelius is free in the app.