It is the quality of your life that matters, not its length.
Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu.
Philosophers
Seneca
Seneca (c. 4 BC - 65 AD), Stoic philosopher and Nero's advisor, wrote on time, anger, and adversity from the heart of Roman power. His Moral Letters and On the Shortness of Life remain practical self-mastery guides.
View this figure's profile
Seneca's Other Quotes
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.
Fire tests gold; adversity tests strong people.
As in all things, we suffer from excess in reading too. Many books are a burden, not an ornament.
Anger, if not obeyed, fades; once it enters the mind and pervades habit, vice becomes law.
It is hard to retain what you learn unless you practice it.
Related Quotes
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
-- Marcus Aurelius
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
-- Steve Jobs
Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.
-- Benedictus de Spinoza
I am searching for a human being.
-- Diogenes of Sinope
Virtue is a kind of mean.
-- Aristotle
Virtue is a matter of deeds, not words.
-- Antisthenes