Plain
Seneca — The Senator

Fortune can do whatever she wants with everyone else — this man's life is already secure. He might gain something, but he can't lose anything. It's like someone who is already full getting extra food. He takes it, but he doesn't really want it. Don't think someone has lived a long life just because they have wrinkles or gray hair. That person hasn't lived long — they've just been alive for a long time. Would you say a sailor has traveled far if a storm caught him right after leaving port? What if he got blown in circles by winds from every direction? He hasn't traveled much. He's just been tossed around a lot.

On the Shortness of Life, Section 7 30 of 87
What Matters Most Death & Mortality
Seneca — The Senator Original

Fortune may deal with the rest as she will, his life is already safe from her: such a man may gain something, but cannot lose anything: and, indeed, he can only gain anything in the same way as one who is already glutted and filled can get some extra food which he takes although he does not want it. You have no grounds, therefore, for supposing that any one has lived long, because he has wrinkles or grey hairs: such a man has not lived long, but has only been long alive. Why! would you think that a man had voyaged much if a fierce gale had caught him as soon as he left his port, and he had been driven round and round the same place continually by a succession of winds blowing from opposite quarters? such a man has not travelled much, he has only been much tossed about.

On the Shortness of Life, Section 7 30 of 87
Seneca — The Senator

Another man is a famous lawyer. People fight to get him to take their cases. He draws huge crowds to the courthouse — so many that most can't even hear him speak. But he says, "When will vacation time come?" Every person rushes through life. They long for the future and feel tired of the present. But a person who uses all his time for his own purposes — who plans each day like he's planning his whole life — neither wishes for tomorrow nor fears it. What new pleasure could any hour bring him? He knows all pleasures and has enjoyed them to the point of being sick of them.

On the Shortness of Life, Section 7 29 of 87
What Matters Most Freedom & Control
Seneca — The Senator Original

another is an advocate who is fought for in all the courts, and who draws immense audiences, who crowd all the forum to a far greater distance than they can hear him; "When," says he, "will vacation-time come?" Every man hurries through his life, and suffers from a yearning for the future, and a weariness of the present: but he who disposes of all his time for his own purposes, who arranges all his days as though he were arranging the plan of his life, neither wishes for nor fears the morrow: for what new pleasure can any hour now bestow upon him? he knows it all, and has indulged in it all even to satiety.

On the Shortness of Life, Section 7 29 of 87
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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