Image by Michal Renčo from Pixabay

Seneca through his letters has shared with us a lifetime of wisdom,
Reproduced below are two such short snippets on the importance of time. He Says,
“Life is divided into 3 periods, past, present & future. Of-course the present is short, the Future is doubtful, the past is certain.
The present time is extremely short, so much so that some people are unaware of it. For it is always on the move, flowing on in a rush; It ceases before it has come, and does not suffer delay any more than the firmament or the stars, whose unceasing movement never pauses in the same place. And so the preoccupied are concerned only with the present, and it is so short that It cannot be grasped, and even this is stolen from them while they are involved in their many distractions.”

Setting the context in the initial sections on, how time is wasted, he says
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. life is long enough andsuffi ciently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all wellinvested. but when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at lastby deaths fi nal constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. 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.
Just as when ample and princely wealth falls to a bad owner, it is squandered in a moment, Butwealth however modest, if entrusted to a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime extendsamply if you manage it properly.“