31 Quotes About The Shortness of Life

There are many ways that we waste time on a daily basis. Embracing the joys and memories that we can create make life seem more complete and whole. These quotes about the shortness of life reminds us to treasure every moment.

“As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or do not exist.”

“But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”

“Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.”

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”

“It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”

“I’ve been quite fascinated by the relative insignificance of human existence, the shortness of life.”

“Life is long if you know how to use it.”

“Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.”

“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only those are really alive. For they not only keep a good watch over their own lifetimes, but they annex every age to theirs.”

“Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.”

“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”

“So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not Ill-supplied but wasteful of it.”

“So you must match time’s swiftness with your speed in using it, and you must drink quickly as though from a rapid stream that will not always flow.”

“The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in eternal sunshine.”

“The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours.”

“The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains.”

“The shortness of life, I keep saying, makes everything seem pointless when I think about the longness of death. When I look ahead, all I can see is my final demise.”

“The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.”

“The shortness of life, which we all discuss, but which is very clear to me at the moment, makes keeping and spreading a joyful peace more crucial than ever before.”

“The thought of eternity consoles for the shortness of life.”

“The time of life is short; To spend that shortness basely were too long.”

“The time of the actual enjoyment is short and swift, and made much shorter through their own fault. For they dash from one pleasure to another and cannot stay steady in one desire.”

“The vistas of possibility are only limited by the shortness of life.”

“They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.”

“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.”

“Though we seem grieved at the shortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to make up an estate, then to arrive at honors, then to retire.”

“We must indulge the mind and from time to time allow it the leisure which is its food and strength.”

“Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.”

“When we realize the shortness of life, we begin to see the importance of making every moment count.”

“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire”

“You must set your hands to tasks which you can finish or at least hope to finish, and avoid those which get bigger as you proceed and do not cease where you had intended.”

When it comes to your end of life, few things matter most than spending time with your loved ones.