Seneca Defines Life

August 8, 2025

Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.

I have been a competitive athlete for much of my life, which just means that I am not good at being still. Even now, watching from the sidelines stifles something inside of me. Obviously, I lack the agility and recovery of today’s athletes, but I still like to participate. Reading through some of the Stoic literature has given me reason to pause, however. Recently, I read Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life” which bluntly states how little we actually appreciate life. He belittles those who can’t stop at a little bit of wealth but would rather squander their hours to make huge profits. Greed is, according to Seneca, among the worst of human sins. His words reminded me of moderation, of being in the moment, of the pleasure in pausing and in contemplation.

Seneca argues for moderation and for the improvement of the mind. He believes that humans are provided plenty of time to enjoy life, but we misunderstand enjoyment. Rather than seeking idle pleasures, or more leisure time, or easy lifestyles, we should remember that death is always close which will remind us of the value of each moment. When people claim that life is too short, he faults their own thinking. Sharp, pointed, concise, and direct, Seneca blames humans for wasting most of the time that they do have.

Since contemplation of great ideas such as pleasure, pain, life, and death add depth to the moment, the rest of today’s blog contains direct quotes from Seneca. Consider pausing with each thought. Consider creating a journal in which you discuss some of the relevance, or irrelevance, to your world. And thank you for reading!

From #1:

“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. So it is—the life we receive is not short, but we make it so…”

From #2:

“Why do we complain of Nature? She has shown herself kindly; life, if you know how to use it, is long. But one man is possessed by an avarice that is insatiable, another by a toilsome devotion to tasks that are useless; one man is besotted with wine, another is paralyzed by sloth; one man is exhausted by an ambition that always hangs upon the decision of others, another, driven on by the greed of the trader, is led over all lands and all seas by the hope of gain; some are tormented by a passion for war and are always either bent upon inflicting danger upon others or concerned about their own; some are worn out by voluntary servitude in a thankless attendance upon the great; many are kept busy either in the pursuit of other men’s fortune or in complaining of their own; many, following no fixed aim, shifting and inconstant and dissatisfied, are plunged by their fickleness into plans that are ever new; some have no fixed principle by which to direct their course, but Fate takes them unawares while they loll and yawn – so surely does it happen that I cannot doubt the truth of that utterance which the greatest of poets delivered with all the seeming of an oracle: ‘The part of life we really live is small.’ For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time.….”

From #3:

“Look back in memory and consider when you ever had a fixed plan, how few days have passed as you had intended, when you were ever at your own disposal, when your face ever wore its natural expression, when your mind was ever unperturbed, what work you have achieved in so long a life, how many have robbed you of life when you were not aware of what you were losing, how much was taken up in useless sorrow, in foolish joy, in greedy desire, in the allurements of society, how little of yourself was left to you; you will perceive that you are dying before your season!”

From #7:

“There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn… It takes the whole of life to learn how to live, and—what will perhaps make you wonder more—it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.”

From #8:

“I am often filled with wonder when I see some men demanding the time of others and those from whom they ask it most indulgent. Both of them fix their eyes on the object of the request for time, neither of them on the time itself; just as if what is asked were nothing, what is given, nothing. Men trifle with the most precious thing in the world; but they are blind to it because it is an incorporeal thing, because it does not come beneath the sight of the eyes, and for this reason it is counted a very cheap thing – nay, of almost no value at all. Men set very great store by pensions and doles, and for these they hire out their labor or service or effort. But no one sets a value on time; all use it lavishly as if it cost nothing.”

From #10:

“Life is divided into three periods – that which has been, that which is, that which will be. Of these the present time is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain. For the last is the one over which Fortune has lost control, is the one which cannot be brought back under any man’s power. But men who are engrossed lose this; for they have no time to look back upon the past, and even if they should have, it is not pleasant to recall something they must view with regret. They are, therefore, unwilling to direct their thoughts backward to ill-spent hours, and those whose vices become obvious if they review the past, even the vices which were disguised under some allurement of momentary pleasure, do not have the courage to revert to those hours. …[H]e who has ambitiously coveted, proudly scorned, recklessly conquered, treacherously betrayed, greedily seized, or lavishly squandered, must needs fear his own memory. And yet this is the part of our time that is sacred and set apart, put beyond the reach of all human mishaps, and removed from the dominion of Fortune, the part which is disquieted by no want, by no fear, by no attacks of disease; this can neither be troubled nor be snatched away – it is an everlasting and unanxious possession. The present offers only one day at a time, and each by minutes; but all the days of past time will appear when you bid them, they will suffer you to behold them and keep them at your will—a thing which those who are engrossed have no time to do. The mind that is untroubled and tranquil has the power to roam into all the parts of its life; but the minds of the engrossed, just as if weighted by a yoke, cannot turn and look behind. And so their life vanishes into an abyss…. The engrossed, therefore, are concerned with present time alone, and it is so brief that it cannot be grasped, and even this is stolen from them, distracted as they are among many things.”

From #11:

“But when at last some infirmity has reminded them of their mortality, in what terror do they die, feeling that they are being dragged out of life, and not merely leaving it.”

From #16:

“[T]hose who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear for the future have a life that is very brief and troubled…”

From #17:

“And why is it that even their joys are uneasy from fear? Because they do not rest on stable causes, but are perturbed as groundlessly as they are born… All the greatest blessings are a source of anxiety, and at no time is fortune less wisely trusted than when it is best; to maintain prosperity there is need of other prosperity, and in behalf of the prayers that have turned out well we must make still other prayers. For everything that comes to us from chance is unstable, and the higher it rises, the more liable it is to fall. Moreover, what is doomed to perish brings pleasure to no one…. Reasons for anxiety will never be lacking, whether born of prosperity or of wretchedness; life pushes on in a succession of engrossments. We shall always pray for leisure, but never enjoy it.”

From #19:

“The condition of all who are engrossed is wretched, but most wretched is the condition of those who labor at engrossments that are not even their own, who regulate their sleep by that of another, their walk by the pace of another, who are under orders in case of the freest things in the world—loving and hating. If these wish to know how short their life is, let them reflect how small a part of it is their own.”

All quotes from: Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life”, Translated by John W. Basore, Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heinemann, 1932: https://www.edbatista.com/files/2013/Seneca-On-the-Shortness-of-Life-Excerpts.pdf

Photo credit: Shutterstock/ Everett Collection