On the Shortness of Life, Section 7

Seneca — The Senator

Many excellent people have freed themselves from all distractions. They've given up wealth, business, and pleasure to spend their entire lives learning how to live well. Yet most of them die admitting they still don't know how to live — let alone how to live wisely. Believe me, it takes a great person who rises above human weakness to protect every moment of their time. That's why their life feels very long — they dedicate every possible part of it to themselves. No time sits idle or wasted or under someone else's control. They find nothing worth trading their time for, and they guard it fiercely.

Seneca — The Senator Original

Many excellent men have freed themselves from all hindrances, have given up riches, business, and pleasure, and have made it their duty to the very end of their lives to learn how to live: and yet the larger portion of them leave this life confessing that they do not yet know how to live, and still less know how to live as wise men. Believe me, it requires a great man and one who is superior to human frailties not to allow any of his time to be filched from him: and therefore it follows that his life is a very long one, because he devotes every possible part of it to himself: no portion lies idle or uncultivated, or in another man's power; for he finds nothing worthy of being exchanged for his time, which he husbands most grudgingly.

Seneca — The Senator

Everyone agrees on this: you cannot do anything well — whether speaking or writing — if you're busy with other things. Nothing grows deep in a mind that's pulled in different directions. A distracted mind rejects whatever you try to put into it. The businessman knows less about living than anyone. There's nothing harder to learn than how to live. Other skills have plenty of teachers everywhere. Some things can be learned so well by children that they can teach them to others. But it takes your whole life to learn how to live. And here's what might surprise you even more: it takes your whole life to learn how to die.

Seneca — The Senator Original

Finally, all are agreed that nothing, neither eloquence nor literature, can be done properly by one who is occupied with something else; for nothing can take deep root in a mind which is directed to some other subject, and which rejects whatever you try to stuff into it. No man knows less about living than a business man: there is nothing about which it is more difficult to gain knowledge. Other arts have many folk everywhere who profess to teach them: some of them can be so thoroughly learned by mere boys, that they are able to teach them to others: but one's whole life must be spent in learning how to live, and, which may perhaps surprise you more, one's whole life must be spent in learning how to die.