Opening the book…
Opening the book…
Attention, patience, and how we choose to spend our days.
“Describe how your sense of time has changed across your life. What feels urgent now that did not before — or vice versa?”
No chapter yet. Contributions are open, and the chapter is drafted once enough has been gathered.
Related passages from different traditions. Read them together, or follow a question that interests you.
Time is short, the body fades, and what remains of us dissolves quickly into nothing.
20 passages · 5 traditions
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Psalms 90:4, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Within a very little while, thou wilt be either ashes, or a sceletum; and a name perchance; and perchance, not so much as a name. And what is that but an empty sound, and a rebounding echo?... But still that time come, what will content thee? what else, but to worship and praise the Gods; and to do good unto men. To bear with them, and to forbear to do them any wrong.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.XXVII, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
The time of a man's life is as a point; the substance of it ever flowing, the sense obscure; and the whole composition of the body tending to corruption. His soul is restless, fortune uncertain, and fame doubtful; to be brief, as a stream so are all things belonging to the body; as a dream, or as a smoke, so are all that belong unto the soul. Our life is a warfare, and a mere pilgrimage. Fame after life is no better than oblivion. What is it then that will adhere and follow? Only one thing, philosophy.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.XV, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, James 4:14, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
One, that the things or objects themselves reach not unto the soul, but stand without still and quiet, and that it is from the opinion only which is within, that all the tumult and all the trouble doth proceed. The next, that all these things, which now thou seest, shall within a very little while be changed, and be no more. This world is mere change, and this life, opinion.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.III, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
Dost thou grieve that thou dost weigh but so many pounds, and not three hundred rather? Just as much reason hast thou to grieve that thou must live but so many years, and not longer. For as for bulk and substance thou dost content thyself with that proportion of it that is allotted unto thee, so shouldst thou for time.
Human life moves through distinct phases, each with its own proper work, temptation, and understanding.
19 passages · 5 traditions
The years of parents may by no means not be kept in the memory, as an occasion at once for joy and for fear.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 4.21, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Up to our thirty-sixth year, we may be compared, in respect of the way in which we use our vital energy, to people who live on the interest of their money: what they spend to-day, they have again to-morrow. But from the age of thirty-six onwards, our position is like that of the investor who begins to entrench upon his capital.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section on vital energy and age, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
In youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigor, he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old, and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against covetousness.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 16.7, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Past and future are abstractions; only the present instant is where life is actually lived and action is possible.
18 passages · 5 traditions
Here rolls the sea, and even here lies the other shore waiting to be reached--yes, here is this everlasting present, not distant, not anywhere else.
— The turn of the century · Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, The Relation of the Individual to the Universe, 1913 ↗
Upon every action that thou art about, put this question to thyself; How will this when it is done agree with me? Shall I have no occasion to repent of it? Yet a very little while and I am dead and gone; and all things are at end. What then do I care for more than this, that my present action whatsoever it be, may be the proper action of one that is reasonable.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.II, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
The present is the only reality, the only certainty; that the future almost always turns out contrary to our expectations; that the past, too, was very different from what we suppose it to have been. Therefore we should always be glad of it, and give it the welcome it deserves, and enjoy every hour that is bearable by its freedom from pain and annoyance with a full consciousness of its value.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy ·
Every action and season has its proper moment; acting too soon, too late, or out of turn wastes effort or causes harm.
18 passages · 7 traditions
In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Negotiating, 1625 ↗
He speaks when it is the time to speak, and so men do not get tired of his speaking. He laughs when there is occasion to be joyful, and so men do not get tired of his laughing. He takes when it is consistent with righteousness to do so, and so men do not get tired of his taking.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 14.14, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
There is surely no greater wisdom, than well to time the beginnings, and onsets, of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men, than forced them.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Delays, 1625 ↗
Youth is the time to build knowledge, discipline, and character; those who squander it are left with nothing to sustain them.
18 passages · 3 traditions
Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained treasure in their youth, perish like old herons in a lake without fish.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 11.v.155, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
A man is not an elder because his head is grey; his age may be ripe, but he is called 'Old-in-vain.'
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 19.v.260, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Death carries off a man who is gathering flowers and whose mind is distracted, as a flood carries off a sleeping village.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 4.v.47, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
The thirst of a thoughtless man grows like a creeper; he runs from life to life, like a monkey seeking fruit in the forest.
— ·
People sacrifice the living present for imagined future reward, only to arrive too late or too worn to enjoy what they sought.
17 passages · 7 traditions
This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it, reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Economy, 1854 ↗
Withdraw then from him who turneth his back on our warning and desireth only this present life. This is the sum of their knowledge.
Most justly have these things happened unto thee: why dost not thou amend? O but thou hadst rather become good to-morrow, than to be so to-day.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.XXI, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
Seen against eternity or deep history, human lives and their anxieties shrink to near-nothing, inviting both humility and wonder.
18 passages · 6 traditions
That Time works great changes, and that all things are in their nature fleeting--these are truths that should never be forgotten. Hence, in whatever case you may be, it is well to picture to yourself the opposite: in prosperity, to be mindful of misfortune; in friendship, of enmity; in good weather, of days when the sky is overcast; in love, of hatred; in moments of trust, to imagine the betrayal that will make you regret your confidence.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 49, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
Misery!--happiness is to be found by its side! Happiness!--misery lurks beneath it! Who knows what either will come to in the end?
When things have attained their strong maturity they become old. This may be said to be not in accordance with the Tao: and what is not in accordance with it soon comes to an end.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Psalms 90:10, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Job 14:1-2, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Remember withal that no man properly can be said to live more than that which is now present, which is but a moment of time. Whatsoever is besides either is already past, or uncertain. The time therefore that any man doth live, is but a little, and the place where he liveth, is but a very little corner of the earth, and the greatest fame that can remain of a man after his death, even that is but little.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.X, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
Before long, alas! this body will lie on the earth, despised, without understanding, like a useless log.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 3.v.41, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Job 7:6, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
If thou shouldst live three thousand, or as many as ten thousands of years, yet remember this, that man can part with no life properly, save with that little part of life, which he now lives: and that which he lives, is no other, than that which at every instant he parts with.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.XII, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
This life is short. Both he that praiseth, and he that is praised; he that remembers, and he that is remembered, will soon be dust and ashes. Besides, it is but in one corner of this part of the world that thou art praised; and yet in this corner, thou hast not the joint praises of all men; no nor scarce of any one constantly. And yet the whole earth itself, what is it but as one point, in regard of the whole world?
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.XIX, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
nature cannot be cheated: man's life is but seventy salads long, grow they swift or grow they slow.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Experience (section 16), 1844 ↗
Look upon the world as a bubble, look upon it as a mirage: the king of death does not see him who thus looks down upon the world.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 13.v.170, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Thou must hasten therefore; not only because thou art every day nearer unto death than other, but also because that intellective faculty in thee, whereby thou art enabled to know the true nature of things, and to order all thy actions by that knowledge, doth daily waste and decay: or, may fail thee before thou die.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.I, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
On the day when they shall see it, it shall seem to them as though they had not tarried in the tomb, longer than its evening or its morn.
All on the earth shall pass away, But the face of thy Lord shall abide resplendent with majesty and glory.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 55:26-27, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, 1 John 2:17, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
They will say, 'We tarried a day, or part of a day.' God will say, 'Short indeed was the time ye tarried, if that ye knew it.'
At five years of age the study of Scripture; At ten the study of Mishnah; At thirteen subject to the commandments; At fifteen the study of Talmud; At eighteen the bridal canopy; At twenty for pursuit [of livelihood]; At thirty the peak of strength; At forty wisdom; At fifty able to give counsel; At sixty old age; At seventy fullness of years; At eighty the age of "strength"; At ninety a bent body; At one hundred, as good as dead and gone completely out of the world.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 5:21, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do we know that his future will not be equal to our present? If he reach the age of forty or fifty, and has not made himself heard of, then indeed he will not be worth being regarded with respect.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 9.22, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven. At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 2.4, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Young men are fitter to invent, than to judge; fitter for execution, than for counsel; and fitter for new projects, than for settled business. For the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them; but in new things, abuseth them.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Youth And Age, 1625 ↗
In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating quality of the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought that determines his actions.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section on youth and age, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
When a man at forty is the object of dislike, he will always continue what he is.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 17.26, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
But at the age of fifty, _Jupiter_ is the dominant influence. At that period a man has outlived most of his contemporaries, and he can feel himself superior to the generation about him. He is still in the full enjoyment of his strength, and rich in experience and knowledge; and if he has any power and position of his own, he is endowed with authority over all who stand in his immediate surroundings.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Planetary allegory, Jupiter at fifty, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
As life becomes more and more unconscious, the nearer it approaches the point at which all consciousness ceases, the course of time itself seems to increase in rapidity. In childhood all the things and circumstances of life are novel; and that is sufficient to awake us to the full consciousness of existence: hence, at that age, the day seems of such immense length.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section on consciousness and time, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
Hence it may be said that as far as concerns the immediate sensation that time makes upon our minds, the length of any given year is in direct proportion to the number of times it will divide our whole life: for instance, at the age of fifty the year appears to us only one-tenth as long as it did at the age of five.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section on consciousness and time, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state, learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandize.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Vicissitude of Things, 1625 ↗
In our youthful years we still venerate and despise without the art of NUANCE, which is the best gain of life, and we have rightly to do hard penance for having fallen upon men and things with Yea and Nay. Everything is so arranged that the worst of all tastes, THE TASTE FOR THE UNCONDITIONAL, is cruelly befooled and abused, until a man learns to introduce a little art into his sentiments.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 31, tr. Helen Zimmern, 1907 ↗
The main difference between youth and age will always be that youth looks forward to life, and old age to death; and that while the one has a short past and a long future before it, the case is just the opposite with the other.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section on youth vs. age, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
There are men who are learning to speak at a time when they should learn to be silent for ever.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Chapter XXVIII (preceding XXIX), tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
Whilst we converse with what is above us, we do not grow old, but grow young. Infancy, youth, receptive, aspiring, with religious eye looking upward, counts itself nothing and abandons itself to the instruction flowing from all sides. But the man and woman of seventy assume to know all; throw up their hope; renounce aspiration; accept the actual for the necessary and talk down to the young.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Circles, 1844 ↗
Learning hath his infancy, when it is but beginning and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Vicissitude of Things, 1625 ↗
A MAN that is young in years, may be old in hours, if he have lost no time. But that happeneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Youth And Age, 1625 ↗
There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hands. I love a broad margin to my life.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Sounds, 1854 ↗
We know not where we are. Beside, we are sound asleep nearly half our time. Yet we esteem ourselves wise, and have an established order on the surface.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Conclusion, 1854 ↗
Herein doth consist happiness of life, for a man to know thoroughly the true nature of everything; what is the matter, and what is the form of it: with all his heart and soul, ever to do that which is just, and to speak the truth. What then remaineth but to enjoy thy life in a course and coherence of good actions, one upon another immediately succeeding, and never interrupted, though for never so little a while?
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.XXII, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
It is the height of folly to refuse the present hour of happiness, or wantonly to spoil it by vexation at by-gones or uneasiness about what is to come.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 5, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Sounds, 1854 ↗
Then hath a man attained to the estate of perfection in his life and conversation, when he so spends every day, as if it were his last day: never hot and vehement in his affections, nor yet so cold and stupid as one that had no sense; and free from all manner of dissimulation.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.XL, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
If thou shalt intend that which is present, following the rule of right and reason carefully, solidly, meekly, and shalt not intermix any other businesses, but shall study this only to preserve thy spirit unpolluted, and pure, and shall cleave unto him without either hope or fear of anything, in all things that thou shalt either do or speak, contenting thyself with heroical truth, thou shalt live happily; and from this, there is no man that can hinder thee.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.XIII, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
We _do_ cross the infinite at every step, and meet the eternal in every second.
— The turn of the century · Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, V, 1913 ↗
'As often as a father kisseth his child, he should say secretly with himself' (said Epictetus,) 'tomorrow perchance shall he die.' But these words be ominous. No words ominous (said he) that signify anything that is natural.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.XXX, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
The day is an epitome of the year. The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Ponds (Spring chapter), 1854 ↗
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Matthew 6:34, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands; even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Conclusion, 1854 ↗
Thou shalt do; if thou shalt go about every action as thy last action, free from all vanity, all passionate and wilful aberration from reason, and from all hypocrisy, and self-love, and dislike of those things, which by the fates or appointment of God have happened unto thee.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.II, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
Contract thy whole life to the measure and proportion of one single action. And if in every particular action thou dost perform what is fitting to the utmost of thy power, let it suffice thee. And who can hinder thee, but that thou mayest perform what is fitting?
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.XXX, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
Our words and actions to be fair must be timely.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Prudence, 1844 ↗
Do not despise any man, and do not discriminate against anything, for there is no man that has not his hour, and there is no thing that has not its place.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 4:3, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Do not try to appease your friend during his hour of anger; Nor comfort him at the hour while his dead still lies before him; Nor question him at the hour of his vow; Nor strive to see him in the hour of his disgrace.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 4:18, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Neither too soon, nor too late, shall a people reach its appointed time.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 23:43, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small. Therefore the sage, while he never does what is great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest things.
Do not be desirous to have things done quickly; do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 13.17, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest? Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.
Be thou patient therefore with becoming patience; They forsooth regard that day as distant, But we see it nigh.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 70:5-7, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
No people can forestall or retard its destiny.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 15:5, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
Wait thou patiently the judgment of thy Lord, for thou art in our eye; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord when thou risest up, And in the night-season: Praise him when the stars are setting.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 52:48-49, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
All things have we created after a fixed decree: Our command was but one word, swift as the twinkling of an eye.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 54:49-50, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
The day is short, and the work is plentiful, and the laborers are indolent, and the reward is great, and the master of the house is insistent.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 2:15, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self [only], what am I? And if not now, when?
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 1:14, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Like a well-guarded frontier fort, with defences within and without, so let a man guard himself. Not a moment should escape, for they who allow the right moment to pass, suffer pain when they are in hell.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 22.v.315, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
The tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout; the tower of nine storeys rose from a (small) heap of earth; the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:10, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the fool becomes full of evil, even if he gather it little by little.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 9.v.121, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained treasure in their youth, lie, like broken bows, sighing after the past.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 11.v.156, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 20.v.282, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Ecclesiastes 12:1, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Do not separate yourself from the community. Do not trust in yourself until the day of your death. Do not judge your fellow man until you have reached his place. Say not: 'when I shall have leisure I shall study;' perhaps you will not have leisure.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 2:4, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle man will never find the way to knowledge.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 20.v.280, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
A man who has learnt little, grows old like an ox; his flesh grows, but his knowledge does not grow.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 11.v.152, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
And he who lives a hundred years, idle and weak, a life of one day is better if a man has attained firm strength.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 8.v.112, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Let a wise man blow off the impurities of his self, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver one by one, little by little, and from time to time.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 18.v.239, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure, let a wise man leave the small pleasure, and look to the great.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 21.v.290, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
If a man hold himself dear, let him watch himself carefully; during one at least out of the three watches a wise man should be watchful.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 12.v.157, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Proverbs 6:6-8, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
`Here I shall dwell in the rain, here in winter and summer,' thus the fool meditates, and does not think of his death.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 20.v.286, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
But these men love the fleeting present, and leave behind them the heavy day of doom.
Those who strive and hope and live only in the future, always looking ahead and impatiently anticipating what is coming, as something which will make them happy when they get it, are, in spite of their very clever airs, exactly like those donkeys one sees in Italy, whose pace may be hurried by fixing a stick on their heads with a wisp of hay at the end of it; this is always just in front of them, and they keep on trying to get it. Such people are in a constant state of illusion as to their whole existence; they go on living ad interim, until at last they die.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 5, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
THE DESIRE of increasing riches occupieth you, Till ye come to the grave.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 107-92.102:1-2, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
Saith he, 'Of this day didst thou live in heedlessness: but we have taken off thy veil from thee, and thy sight is becoming sharp this day.'
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 50:22, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
So we often toil for things which are no longer suited to us when we attain them; and again, the years we spend in preparing for some work, unconsciously rob us of the power for carrying it out.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 3, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long, but they will probably have lost their elasticity and desire to travel by that time.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Economy, 1854 ↗
Aye, but ye love the transitory, And ye neglect the life to come.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 78-75.75:20-21, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
Not as though thou hadst thousands of years to live. Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.XIV, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
How many a garden and fountain did they quit! And corn fields and noble dwellings! And pleasures in which they rejoiced them! So was it: and we gave them as a heritage to another people.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 44:25-28, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
But ye prefer this present life, Though the life to come is better and more enduring.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 87-81.87:16-17, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
This world is like a vestibule before the world to come; prepare yourself in the vestibule, so that you may enter the banqueting-hall.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 4:16, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Ecclesiastes 11:1-2, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
It is the consciousness of this merited approbation and esteem which is alone capable of supporting the agent in this tenor of conduct. The pleasure which we are to enjoy ten years hence interests us so little in comparison with that which we may enjoy today, the passion which the first excites, is naturally so weak in comparison with that violent emotion which the second is apt to give occasion to, that the one could never be any balance to the other, unless it was supported by the sense of propriety, by the consciousness that we merited the esteem and approbation of every body.
— The Enlightenment · Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part IV (preceding Part V), 1759 ↗
When for the sake of the present, therefore, we sacrifice the future, our conduct appears to him absurd and extravagant in the highest degree, and he cannot enter into the principles which influence it. On the contrary, when we abstain from present pleasure, in order to secure greater pleasure to come, when we act as if the remote object interested us as much as that which immediately presses upon the senses, as our affections exactly correspond with his own, he cannot fail to approve of our behaviour.
— The Enlightenment · Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part IV (preceding Part V), 1759 ↗
Life is a series of surprises. We do not guess to-day the mood, the pleasure, the power of to-morrow, when we are building up our being.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Circles, 1844 ↗
Deep truths may be perceived, but can never be excogitated--that is to say, the first knowledge of them is immediate, called forth by some momentary impression. This knowledge is of such a kind as to be attainable only when the impressions are strong, lively and deep; and if we are to be acquainted with deep truths, everything depends upon a proper use of our early years.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section on youth and age, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life.
Or fame or life, which do you hold more dear? Or life or wealth, to which would you adhere? Keep life and lose those other things; keep them and lose your life:--which brings sorrow and pain more near?
Him cause we to stoop through age whose days we lengthen. Will they not understand?
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 36:68, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
The silently growing assumption of this age is that the probation of races is past, and that the backward races of to-day are of proven inefficiency and not worth the saving. Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Sorrow Songs, 1903 ↗
The object of this fine essay quaintly entitled Circles is to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it began, but it is no less true that around every circle another can be drawn.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, CIRCLES (Footnote 690), 1844 ↗
Whatever fate befalls you, do not give way to great rejoicings or great lamentations; partly because all things are full of change, and your fortune may turn at any moment; partly because men are so apt to be deceived in their judgment as to what is good or bad for them.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 51, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
Nothing is more striking than the secular alteration that goes on in the moral and religious tone of men, as their insight into nature and their social arrangements progressively develop. After an interval of a few generations the mental climate proves unfavorable to notions of the deity which at an earlier date were perfectly satisfactory: the older gods have fallen below the common secular level, and can no longer be believed in.
— The turn of the century · William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures XIV–XV, 1902 ↗
But--higher, deeper, innermost--abides Another Life, not like the life of sense, Escaping sight, unchanging. This endures When all created things have passed away.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 8, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
Thou seest Me as Time who kills, Time who brings all to doom, The Slayer Time, Ancient of Days, come hither to consume
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 11, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
There is a perfection in each individual strain of this music, which is the revelation of completion in the incomplete. No one of its notes is final, yet each reflects the infinite.
— The turn of the century · Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, VII (late), 1913 ↗
The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit,—not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Ponds (Spring chapter), 1854 ↗
This human form is the great chance. It is called the karmic body, in which we decide our fate. We are running in a huge circle, and this is the point in the circle which determines the future. So a human body is considered the greatest body there is; man is greater than the gods.
— The turn of the century · Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, VII, 1907 ↗
The life of man is a self-evolving circle. Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, CIRCLES (Footnote 696), 1844 ↗