Echoes

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While you're alive and able—be good.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

Do not, my soul, seek immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live. And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long.

Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Our bodies are perishable, wealth is not at all permanent and death is always nearby. Therefore we must immediately engage in acts of merit.

Thou oughtest in every deed and thought so to order thyself, as if thou wert to die this day.

Even as we speak, envious time is running away from us. Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.

Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

Life is too short to waste The critic bite or cynic bark, Quarrel, or reprimand; ’Twill soon be dark; Up! mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!

There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return.

There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment. Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.

Happy is the man who hath the hour of his death always before his eyes, and daily prepareth himself to die.

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession.

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.