Life Is Short Quotes — Page 2

“To His Coy Mistress,” posthumously published in Miscellaneous Poems (1681), represented by Representative Poetry Online. The poem is a dramatic seduction argument by a speaker, not neutral advice about consent, relationships or urgency.

“Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” represented by Poetry Foundation. The poem is a seventeenth-century farewell written in the historical context of maternal mortality; it is personal religious-era reflection rather than medical guidance about childbirth.

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, “The Daily Miracle.” Bennett contrasts time with money and property while arguing that only the current flow of time can actually be wasted.

Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation, in a discussion of fortune and apparent stability.

Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim connects the value of life directly with the use of time.

“Another Spring,” Project Gutenberg #16950. The stanza begins conditionally—'If I might see another Spring'—so the present-focused conclusion grows from mortality and uncertainty.

“Spring,” Project Gutenberg #16950. This is a lyric reflection on transience, not a literal biological generalization about all life.

Cato on Old Age, Shuckburgh translation, in a passage about older people planting for those who come after them.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the King James Version, opening the sequence of contrasting times and seasons.

“Earth Is Short,” Poems: First Series (1890), Project Gutenberg #12242. The poem proceeds into questions about heaven and God; its religious questions remain questions rather than verified metaphysical claims.

Poem 690; Dickinson builds the abstract idea of eternity from individual present moments.

Soliloquies in England, “War Shrines”; the sentence follows a contrast between strained worldliness and a more festive acceptance of life.

The Chimney-Corner, IV, ‘Little Foxes.—Part III,’ first published in The Atlantic Monthly (April 1865) and represented by Project Gutenberg #30611, around printed page 500. ‘The bitterest tears shed over graves...’ follows Stowe's argument that affection left unexpressed can become remorse after death and is followed by examples of words people wish they had said. This collection's ‘Repression’ label describes this moral section rather than a separate printed chapter title; the passage is domestic-moral essay rhetoric, not clinical grief guidance or a guarantee about bereavement.

Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”

Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”

A Psalm of Life; the line follows the instruction to let the dead past bury its dead.

Three Men in a Boat, Chapter I; spoken by the narrator to his doctor before he explains the one ailment he believes he does not have.

“Ode on Melancholy,” in Keats: Poems Published in 1820; Project Gutenberg #23684. The personified “she” is Melancholy; the line is poetic reflection on transience rather than a literal character claim.

Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne, Letter XIX, “Broken Reeds,” paragraph 117, printed page 77 in Project Gutenberg #31196. Ruskin distinguishes the financial cost of repeated charitable appeals from “the crippling of my temper, and waste of my time,” then explains his own limits and distress. The retained fragment remains autobiographical Victorian social-reform context rather than general advice against helping others or modern mental-health guidance.

The Prophet, “On Children”; Gibran contrasts parents’ memory of yesterday with children belonging to a life that moves forward.

The Prophet, “On Work.”

Ecclesiastes 3:4 in the King James Version.

Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation.

Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation.

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter VII; represented Cassell & Company 1889 text in Project Gutenberg #3529. “Thinking of death makes us tenderly cling to our affections” closes the same meditation on mortality and immediately becomes a personal assurance to the recipient of the letter. The line remains first-person epistolary reflection, not a universal clinical claim about bereavement or attachment.

Apology, final paragraph in Jowett’s translation; Socrates closes after the jury has sentenced him to death.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 1, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.

Essay “Experience,” Essays: Second Series.

The Story of My Heart (1883), Chapter III, Project Gutenberg #2317. The inherited Chapter I note is corrected: ‘Now is eternity; now is the immortal life’ immediately follows the same tumulus passage in which Jefferies treats the present moment as continuous eternity. This is his personal metaphysical/spiritual intuition, not empirical evidence for immortality, neuroscience or clinical guidance.

“To Daffodils,” from Hesperides (1648), represented by Project Gutenberg #1211. The poem develops a conventional lyric comparison between short-lived flowers and human mortality.

The Idler, No. 88; this clause comes from Johnson’s reflection on private ambitions that remain unfinished while days and years pass.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 101.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 1, “On Saving Time,” Richard M. Gummere translation. The line follows Seneca’s advice to hold every hour and precedes his claim that nothing is truly ours except time.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter VIII; Seneca describes life continuing quietly regardless of power or applause.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter II; follows the example of people living through chains of obligation.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter X; opening clause of Seneca’s description of the present as continuously moving.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; Basore translation, in Seneca’s attack on indefinite delay and preparation for a future life.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter II; part of Seneca’s criticism of people who give all their time away.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter III; part of Seneca’s inventory of where a lifetime disappears.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; Seneca describes people who stay busy preparing for a future life.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter II; opening claim before Seneca lists ways people become engrossed.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter II; Seneca cites the line while arguing that much existence is merely time.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; sentence in Seneca’s criticism of distant plans that steal the present.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter III; Seneca asks an older person to reckon honestly with how time was spent.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter I; sentence from Seneca’s argument that life is ample when ordered well.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; Seneca describes the engrossed reaching old age unprepared because they failed to notice its daily approach.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter III; Seneca criticizes reserving wisdom and leisure for very old age.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter III; part of Seneca’s warning against acting as though every day were guaranteed.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter X; opening distinction between past, present and future.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter VIII; Seneca warns that even people who know time is precious often give it away without noticing the loss.

Past and Present, Book III, Chapter XII, “Reward,” printed page 251 in Thomas Carlyle’s Collected Works, Library Edition, Vol. XIII (London: Chapman and Hall), Project Gutenberg #26159. Carlyle says one shall “work while it is called Today” immediately before “For the Night cometh, wherein no man can work,” retaining the biblical allusion and nineteenth-century religious exhortation rather than reframing it as productivity science.

“De Profundis I,” Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), Project Gutenberg #3168. The poem reflects on recurring seasons and a past bereavement; it does not prescribe a universal grief timetable.

Leaves of Grass (1855), untitled first-edition poem later known as “Song of Myself,” printed page 56 (Wikisource scan page 62). The line belongs to the poem’s final movement, later numbered section 52; the 1855 record remains tied to the unnumbered first edition rather than inheriting later section structure.

On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth, first published March 1827. The sentence belongs to Hazlitt’s account of expansive youthful expectation and should not be treated as a literal claim of control over the future.

‘On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth,’ opening of the essay first published unsigned in The Monthly Magazine, March 1827, represented in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, Volume XII, Project Gutenberg #72206. ‘No young man believes he shall ever die’ opens Hazlitt's rhetorical account of youth's felt distance from mortality; it is historical essay reflection, not a literal claim about every young person.

The Round Table, No. 1, “On the Love of Life,” January 15, 1815. The phrase occurs inside Hazlitt’s broader argument that passions and projects strengthen attachment to life.

The Round Table, No. 1, ‘On the Love of Life,’ dated 15 January 1815 in the represented collected text, Project Gutenberg #55932. The sentence opens Hazlitt's argument that attachment to life is driven more by active passions than by present enjoyment and is immediately followed by ‘Without life there can be no action.’ It is philosophical-psychological essay argument, not modern clinical evidence.

Table-Talk, Volume I, Essay III, “On the Past and Future,” Project Gutenberg #3020. “The future is yet to come” occurs in Hazlitt’s comparison of the already-existing past with the not-yet-existing future: the full sentence continues that the future “has never been anything.” The retained short excerpt is therefore part of a philosophical contrast, not a prediction, forecasting rule or scientific proposition.

A Way of Life, section I, printed page 5, London: Constable & Company Ltd. (1913), Project Gutenberg #73116. Osler condenses his proposed daily-living habit into “Life in day-tight compartments,” using the metaphor of watertight ship compartments. This remains historical conduct-of-life rhetoric, not a treatment for anxiety or other health conditions.

As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, Jaques; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 42 / Wikisource scan leaf 54. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” opens Jaques’s seven-ages speech after Duke Senior compares human suffering with theatrical pageants. The metaphor remains dramatic character speech about roles and aging, not Shakespeare speaking autobiographically.

Act 5, Scene 2.

Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 2, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Caesar tells Calpurnia, ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once,’ while rejecting her fear and deciding to go out. The line remains Caesar’s dramatic reasoning, not Shakespeare’s direct personal counsel.

The Merry Wives of Windsor; a comic line about timing and punctuality.

Act 4, Scene 1.