Named source · c. 63–65

Moral Letters to Lucilius — Letter 1 Quotes by Seneca: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to Moral Letters to Lucilius — Letter 1 by or associated with Seneca, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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About this source

Seneca’s opening Moral Letter to Lucilius, traditionally titled “On Saving Time”

Topics and ideas

Time, postponement, mortality, attention, procrastination and the cost of allowing finite life to slip away.

English wording

Translation

Richard M. Gummere — Translator · Latin → English

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Represented passages

1 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

Seneca · Moral Letters to Lucilius — Letter 1 · c. 63–65

Seneca warns that postponement is itself a use of finite life: waiting for a more convenient future can become the very way the available present is lost.

Source note: 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. Letter 1 remains part of the single normalized Moral Letters work family.