Prodigal Life

"The part of life we really live is small. For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time."

No one is to be found who is willing to distribute his money, yet among how yet among how many does each one of us distribute his life! In guarding their fortune men are often closefisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, in the case of the one thing in which it is right to be miserly, they show themselves most prodigal.

—Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, translated by John W. Basore, quoting an unknown poet.