Source identified
“No one is his own master.”
Seneca uses mastery here as ownership of one’s time and direction rather than power over other people.
Source note: On the Shortness of Life, Chapter II; follows the example of people living through chains of obligation.
Source identified
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
Seneca argues against postponing life into an imagined future and asks the reader to treat the present day as complete enough for deliberate living.
Source note: Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 101.
Source identified
“No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.”
An obsession with extending life can undermine the peace of the life already present, because fear of ending displaces attention from living.
Source note: Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 4.
Source identified
“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
Self-command is presented as a prerequisite for freedom because uncontrolled impulses can rule a person as effectively as an outside master.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XV, Hastings Crossley translation.
Source identified
“You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply.”
Time is treated as a finite resource that becomes easy to waste when its remaining amount is assumed rather than known.
Source note: On the Shortness of Life, Chapter III; part of Seneca’s warning against acting as though every day were guaranteed.
Source identified
“But I kept at it”
The short phrase summarizes Washington’s response to repeated failure while learning demanding household work under Mrs. Ruffner’s supervision.
Source note: Working With the Hands, Chapter I; Project Gutenberg #64504. This is an autobiographical fragment whose surrounding paragraph describes repeated attempts before improvement.