再读 Seneca

It is not that life is brief, but that we squander much of it. Life is long enough, and we are granted ample time to achieve great things if we invest it wisely. Yet when we fritter it away in careless indulgence or idle pursuits, we are jolted by death’s finality to realize it slipped through our fingers before we even noticed. The truth is this: we are not given a short life, but we shorten it ourselves; we are not deprived of time, but wasteful with it. Life is long if you know how to live it."

- De Brevitate Vitae ("On the Shortness of Life") by Seneca

 

人生之短暂，非因其短促，而因我们虚掷太多。生命本已足够漫长，赐予我们的时光足以成就伟业，若能善加利用。然而，当我们沉溺于无度的奢华或虚耗于无益之事，死亡的终极约束才令我们蓦然惊觉，时光已在不知不觉间流逝。事实如此：我们并非被赋予短暂的生命，而是我们自使之短暂；我们并非缺乏时间，而是挥霍无度。人生若懂得如何运用，便是漫长。