On the Shortness of Life
Seneca
Own the e-book first — we’ll take $5 off the physical edition whenever you’re ready to add it to the collection.
About this edition
A Roman millionaire's essay on why most men die without having lived. Written two thousand years ago. Still the sharpest wake-up call ever put on paper.
On the Shortness of Life is Seneca's most famous essay — a concentrated argument that life is long enough if you stop wasting it. He attacks the busy man who fills his schedule to avoid thinking, the ambitious man who sacrifices his present for a future that may never arrive, and the comfortable man who mistakes routine for living.
This is Seneca at his most direct. No letters, no dialogue — just a straight-ahead assault on the way most people spend their time. He wrote it for his friend Paulinus, but he was writing for every man who has ever looked up from his work and realized years have passed without permission.
Short enough to read in an afternoon. Heavy enough to change how you spend tomorrow.
THIS EDITION
- John W. Basore translation — clean and direct
- Civil Savage Society cover and interior design
- ~64 pages | 6×9 trim | cream paper
- Available in paperback
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.
