“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place.”
Marcus Aurelius, c. 180 AD · Roman emperor writing privately in his tent
Chapter 2
On Time
“Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.”
Seneca, c. 65 AD · Stoic philosopher, opening his first letter
“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.”
Seneca, c. 49 AD · Stoic philosopher of the Roman court
“What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?”
Seneca, c. 65 AD · Stoic philosopher writing to his friend Lucilius
“Every man lives only this present time, which is an indivisible point.”
Marcus Aurelius, c. 180 AD · Roman emperor and Stoic
“The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly, and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.”
Omar Khayyam, 1120 · Persian astronomer and poet
“Yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.”
Kahlil Gibran, 1923 · Lebanese American poet, answering an astronomer
When people sense that time ahead of them is running short, their goals shift. They stop collecting new information and new contacts, and spend what remains on the relationships and experiences that already matter most.
Laura Carstensen, 2021 · Stanford psychologist, on socioemotional selectivity theory
“Time is, indeed, the theatre and seat of illusion: nothing is so ductile and elastic. The mind stretches an hour to a century, and dwarfs an age to an hour.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1870 · American essayist and lecturer
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Psalm 90, c. 900 BC · Hebrew psalm ascribed to Moses
“See that thou secure this present time to thyself.”
Marcus Aurelius, c. 180 AD · Roman emperor and Stoic
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