# On the Shortness of Life

- Identifiant : `seneca.de_brevitate_vitae`
- Auteur : Seneca
- URL canonique : https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-brevitate-vitae/
- Empreinte : `91a3930d943959dffdc30e7bc5ce05eedb2ed975fdeee4ce283027d1c84c0fe6`

## What you will learn

Identify forms of wasted time, distinguish philosophical leisure from inactivity, and confront the argument with Seneca’s social position.

## Summary

The preoccupied may accumulate offices, pleasures, or clients without ever being present to their own lives. Seneca describes anticipation of the future, neglect of the past, and a present surrendered to others’ schedules, then urges Paulinus to leave consuming administration.

Philosophical leisure is not mere rest: it gives access to conversation with authors and deliberate use of each day. Yet the advice comes from a man involved in power and wealth, a biographical contradiction relevant to the text without being fully resolved by it.