there is no such obstacle to true living as waiting, which loses today while it is depending on the morrow.
Genuine
Yes. In On the Shortness of Life (49), Chapter 9, section 1 (De Brevitate Vitae 9.1).
Found word for word by program in the Latin original and in Aubrey Stewart’s English translation (1889).
- Work
- On the Shortness of Life (De Brevitate Vitae), 49
- Where
- Chapter 9, section 1 (De Brevitate Vitae 9.1)
- Found at
- Paragraph 18 of the Latin text, 22 of the English
- Translation
- Aubrey Stewart, 1889
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
[…] What follows, then? Why! you are busy, but life is hurrying on: death will be here some time or other, and you must attend to him, whether you will or no.
[…] Quid fiet? Tu occupatus es, uita festinat; mors interim aderit, cui uelis nolis uacandum est.
[…] They live laboriously, in order that they may live better; they fit themselves out for life at the expense of life itself, and cast their thoughts a long way forwards: yet postponement is the greatest waste of life: it wrings day after day from us, and takes away the present by promising something hereafter: there is no such obstacle to true living as waiting, which loses today while it is depending on the morrow. You dispose of that which is in the hand of Fortune, and you let go that which is in your own. Whither are you looking, whither are you stretching forward? everything future is uncertain: live now straightaway. […]
IX. 1 Potestne quicquam stultius esse quam quorundam sensus, hominum eorum dico qui prudentiam iactant? Operosius occupati sunt. Vt melius possint uiuere, impendio uitae uitam instruunt. Cogitationes suas in longum ordinant; maxima porro uitae iactura dilatio est: illa primum quemque extrahit diem, illa eripit praesentia dum ulteriora promittit. Maximum uiuendi impedimentum est exspectatio, quae pendet ex crastino, perdit hodiernum. Quod in manu fortunae positum est disponis, quod in tua, dimittis. Quo spectas? Quo te extendis? Omnia quae uentura sunt in incerto iacent: protinus uiue. 2 Clamat ecce maximus uates et uelut diuino horrore instinctus salutare carmen canit:
“The best of wretched mortals’ days is that
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aeui
Which is the first to fly.”
Prima fugit.
The scene
Seneca criticizes people who expend their lives preparing to live better later. Postponement, he says, takes away the present by promising the future; they arrange what belongs to Fortune while letting go what is in their own hands. He follows the line with an instruction to live immediately and a quotation from Virgil about the best days being the first to flee.
What it means
Depending on a promised future can make us forfeit the life available now. Preparing to live becomes self-defeating when it continually postpones living.
Often misread
This is not an argument that every kind of planning is worthless. The target is the habit of sacrificing the present to an uncertain future, especially the busy person’s endlessly deferred good life.
Topics
Related quotes
- Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Steve Jobs
- We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it
- men covetously guard their property from waste, but when it comes to waste of time, they are most prodigal of that of which it would become them to be sparing.
- While it is put off, life runs past.
- One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. Friedrich Nietzsche
Sources
Cite it
Seneca the Younger, On the Shortness of Life (49), Chapter 9, section 1 (De Brevitate Vitae 9.1), translated by Aubrey Stewart (1889). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/waiting-loses-today/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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