CURATED COLLECTION

The Shortness of Life

Life is not short — we just spend an astonishing amount of it on the wrong things.

33 quotes found

“
The past that won't pass is precisely what demands our attention.

—Saidiya HartmanScholar & Author

Contemporary ERA • North America

“
Leave a legacy, not just a memory.

—Jay-ZScholar & Thinker

Digital Age ERA • North America

“
Lost time is never found again.

—Benjamin FranklinPolymath & Statesman

Enlightenment ERA • North America

“
Writing is work for eternity. If you write, you die twice — once bodily, once spiritually.

—Pramoedya Ananta ToerNovelist & Writer

Post-War ERA • Southeast Asia

“
To be deprived of memory is to be deprived of life.

—Hisham MatarNovelist

Digital Age ERA • MENA

“
History is not past, it is ever present.

—M. NourbeSe PhilipPoet & Essayist

Contemporary ERA • Caribbean

“
The past is not the past. It is the present.

—Yaa GyasiNovelist

Digital Age ERA • West Africa

“
The past is a phantom, the future a dream, the present alone is real.

—Alexander HerzenThinker, Writer & Revolutionary

Industrial Age ERA • Eastern Europe

“
Fellow‑citizens, we cannot escape history.

—Abraham LincolnPresident

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
The descent into hell is easy; the return, arduous.

—VirgilPoet

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow.

—HoraceLyric Poet

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary OliverPoet

Late Modern ERA • North America

“
Memory is a monster that devours the present.

—Rosa MonteroJournalist & Novelist

Digital Age ERA • Southern Europe

“
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

—SenecaPhilosopher, Statesman & Playwright

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
The past never dies. It just sits in wait.

—Esi EdugyanNovelist

Digital Age ERA • North America

“
In Africa, when an elder dies, a library burns.

—Amadou Hampâté BâWriter, Historian & Diplomat

Post-War ERA • West Africa

“
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave.

—Henry David ThoreauWriter, Naturalist & Philosopher

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
We all come from dust and to dust we must return. But we got something to do here.

—Earl LovelaceNovelist & Playwright

Digital Age ERA • Caribbean

“
Each 'tick‑tock' is a second of life that passes, flees, and does not repeat.

—Frida KahloPainter

Early Modern ERA • Latin America

“
Life and death are of supreme importance. Time passes swiftly. Awaken, awaken!

—Eihei DogenScholar & Thinker

Medieval ERA • East Asia

Loading more...