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For some age-tested wisdom on this topic, read Seneca's On The Shortness Of Life: https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/ebooks/seneca/on-the-shortness-of-life/on-th

For some age-tested wisdom on this topic, read Seneca's On The Shortness Of Life: https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/ebooks/seneca/on-the-shortness-of-life/on-the-shortness-of-life.pdf https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/ebooks/seneca/on-the-shortn... "But one man is possessed by an avarice that is insatiable, another by a toilsome devotion to tasks that are useless; one man is besotted with wine, another is paralyzed by sloth; one man is exhausted by an ambition that always hangs upon the decision of others, another, driven on by the greed of the trader, is led over all lands and all seas by the hope of gain; some are tormented by a passion for war and are always either bent upon inflicting danger upon others or concerned about their own; some there are who are worn out by voluntary servitude in a thankless attendance upon the great; many are kept busy either in the pursuit of other men's fortune or in complaining of their own; many, following no fixed aim, shifting and inconstant and dissatisfied, are plunged by their fickleness into plans that are ever new; some have no fixed principle by which to direct their course, but Fate takes them unawares while they loll and yawn—so surely does it happen that I cannot doubt the truth of that utterance which the greatest of poets delivered with all the seeming of an oracle: 'The part of life we really live is small.'"

1121redblackgo 6y ago
Born 4 BC Died AD 65 Absolutely incredible that his words can speak to someone 2000 years later and make them feel something in the core of their essence. Thanks for sharing this really helped me with some things this morning.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- willthefirst 6y ago
  I know right?! The language is simple and entertaining. There's also a hilarious passage about a wealthy guy who gets carried everywhere, and becomes so numbed by luxury that he can't tell whether he's sitting down or not.
- close04 6y ago
  Human nature hasn't changed probably in thousands of years. Our tools and possibilities did but if you'd swap a few people around in time (of course, ignoring the shock of the change) they'd fill their shoes the same way.
  - akiselev 6y ago
    Have you read many ancient Roman manuscripts? Human nature may not have changed but I found the vast majority of texts completely unrelatable - both due to content and prose. Seneca and a few other philosophers/authors are the exception.
    - close04 6y ago
      I haven't really. But keep in mind that a manuscript is just the world as seen through the author's eyes and mind, not the world. So I'm not saying that the writing style hasn't changed in 2 millennia, rather that the people themselves are the same once you drill beneath the thin layer of change from education and society. I find texts written by my conationals a century or 2 ago already hard to relate to, also modern ones written by people from cultures very different from mine.
      - akiselev 6y ago
        > So I'm not saying that the writing style hasn't changed in 2 millennia, rather that the people themselves are the same once you drill beneath the thin layer of change from education and society. We've been debating the nature versus nurture question since philosophy was a concrete concept with no visible light at the end of the tunnel. Many people, myself included, would strongly disagree with the latter half of that statement.
        close04 6y ago
        > myself included, would strongly disagree with the latter half of that statement In your earlier comment you seemed to be in perfect agreement: > Human nature may not have changed This echoes my sentiment that nurture may change from one generation to the next but nature stays the same. Our traits that stubbornly stay the same probably come from our nature, while the ones that change easier over generations or centuries come from nurture. This isn't about which one is more important in defining you. Fresh out of the womb humans have probably been the same for many, many millennia. Like x86 CPUs running newer and newer software.
- vbsteven 6y ago
  Check out Letters from a Stoic, also by Seneca. Written 2000 years ago but most of it is perfectly applicable to modern life.
- peter_l_downs 6y ago
  If you like Seneca's work, check out Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" -- astonishing how every part of it is still relatable, despite having been written around 600-700AD. I never got a liberal arts education but I've been told that Boethius's writing was the link that helped the Western world re-discover the stoics like Seneca. His resolution of the conflict between an all-knowing God and individual free will is more convincing to me than anything else I've read (to be fair, very little) on the matter.
efferval 6y ago
Also "On Tranquility of Mind," and if you're willing to put the time "Letters from a Stoic." One thing I do find a little overdone in the Stoics is the constant focus on death. There's a great recent book about Montaigne called "How to Live" and I think it does a great job of describing how Montaigne took the best parts of Stoicism but also created his own humanistic take on living.
davesque 6y ago
Slightly off-topic but in the vain of ancient wisdom, about a year ago I randomly plucked this book off the shelf and bought it: https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Friend-Ancient-Friendship/dp/0691177198 https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Friend-Ancient-Friendship/dp/0... There are many sentiments in that book that are highly relatable and one marvels at how long ago they were written. Of course, there's also a fair share of things to recoil from.
- kuhzaam 6y ago
  What kinds of things do you recoil from?
cgh 6y ago
> many are kept busy either in the pursuit of other men's fortune or in complaining of their own; Well, this certainly stings. Tough talk across millennia.
- willthefirst 6y ago
  Definitely. But it's the healthy kind of pain, "ripping off the bandaid".
dang 6y ago
Goes nicely with a famous aphorism of Pascal: “Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm
- chanmad29 6y ago
  Hit me so hard- I had to cry out your username. That said, similar ideas are generally expounded in ancient Indian yoga and meditation practices.
- LocalH 6y ago
  This meshes well with my current view - within the constraints of our "normal" perception, the only thing that exists at any one given time is the present. The past exists as memory, and the future doesn't exist yet. This may end up not being true to objective reality, but that doesn't even matter. It certainly helps me appreciate existence itself. It also makes me want to help other people have a pleasant in-the-moment experience.
m463 6y ago
I just watched a video about seneca and time management: https://youtu.be/41HYjV8IxiI https://youtu.be/41HYjV8IxiI

1121redblackgo 6y ago

Born 4 BC Died AD 65 Absolutely incredible that his words can speak to someone 2000 years later and make them feel something in the core of their essence. Thanks for sharing this really helped me with some things this morning.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
willthefirst 6y ago
I know right?! The language is simple and entertaining. There's also a hilarious passage about a wealthy guy who gets carried everywhere, and becomes so numbed by luxury that he can't tell whether he's sitting down or not.
close04 6y ago
Human nature hasn't changed probably in thousands of years. Our tools and possibilities did but if you'd swap a few people around in time (of course, ignoring the shock of the change) they'd fill their shoes the same way.
- akiselev 6y ago
  Have you read many ancient Roman manuscripts? Human nature may not have changed but I found the vast majority of texts completely unrelatable - both due to content and prose. Seneca and a few other philosophers/authors are the exception.
  - close04 6y ago
    I haven't really. But keep in mind that a manuscript is just the world as seen through the author's eyes and mind, not the world. So I'm not saying that the writing style hasn't changed in 2 millennia, rather that the people themselves are the same once you drill beneath the thin layer of change from education and society. I find texts written by my conationals a century or 2 ago already hard to relate to, also modern ones written by people from cultures very different from mine.
    - akiselev 6y ago
      > So I'm not saying that the writing style hasn't changed in 2 millennia, rather that the people themselves are the same once you drill beneath the thin layer of change from education and society. We've been debating the nature versus nurture question since philosophy was a concrete concept with no visible light at the end of the tunnel. Many people, myself included, would strongly disagree with the latter half of that statement.
      - close04 6y ago
        > myself included, would strongly disagree with the latter half of that statement In your earlier comment you seemed to be in perfect agreement: > Human nature may not have changed This echoes my sentiment that nurture may change from one generation to the next but nature stays the same. Our traits that stubbornly stay the same probably come from our nature, while the ones that change easier over generations or centuries come from nurture. This isn't about which one is more important in defining you. Fresh out of the womb humans have probably been the same for many, many millennia. Like x86 CPUs running newer and newer software.
vbsteven 6y ago
Check out Letters from a Stoic, also by Seneca. Written 2000 years ago but most of it is perfectly applicable to modern life.
peter_l_downs 6y ago
If you like Seneca's work, check out Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" -- astonishing how every part of it is still relatable, despite having been written around 600-700AD. I never got a liberal arts education but I've been told that Boethius's writing was the link that helped the Western world re-discover the stoics like Seneca. His resolution of the conflict between an all-knowing God and individual free will is more convincing to me than anything else I've read (to be fair, very little) on the matter.

efferval 6y ago

Also "On Tranquility of Mind," and if you're willing to put the time "Letters from a Stoic." One thing I do find a little overdone in the Stoics is the constant focus on death. There's a great recent book about Montaigne called "How to Live" and I think it does a great job of describing how Montaigne took the best parts of Stoicism but also created his own humanistic take on living.

davesque 6y ago

Slightly off-topic but in the vain of ancient wisdom, about a year ago I randomly plucked this book off the shelf and bought it: https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Friend-Ancient-Friendship/dp/0691177198 https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Friend-Ancient-Friendship/dp/0... There are many sentiments in that book that are highly relatable and one marvels at how long ago they were written. Of course, there's also a fair share of things to recoil from.

kuhzaam 6y ago
What kinds of things do you recoil from?

cgh 6y ago

> many are kept busy either in the pursuit of other men's fortune or in complaining of their own; Well, this certainly stings. Tough talk across millennia.

willthefirst 6y ago
Definitely. But it's the healthy kind of pain, "ripping off the bandaid".

dang 6y ago

Goes nicely with a famous aphorism of Pascal: “Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm

chanmad29 6y ago
Hit me so hard- I had to cry out your username. That said, similar ideas are generally expounded in ancient Indian yoga and meditation practices.
LocalH 6y ago
This meshes well with my current view - within the constraints of our "normal" perception, the only thing that exists at any one given time is the present. The past exists as memory, and the future doesn't exist yet. This may end up not being true to objective reality, but that doesn't even matter. It certainly helps me appreciate existence itself. It also makes me want to help other people have a pleasant in-the-moment experience.

m463 6y ago

I just watched a video about seneca and time management: https://youtu.be/41HYjV8IxiI https://youtu.be/41HYjV8IxiI