The claim, as it circulates · Checked 2026-10-20
Seneca: “It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it”
It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.”
Seneca, c. 4 BC–AD 65
SAID ITShort answer · Said itYes. It’s from On the Shortness of Life (De Brevitate Vitae), chapter I, in John W. Basore’s public-domain translation (Loeb, 1932). The viral line “we have a short time to live, but we waste a lot of it” is a modern paraphrase.
The receipt: primary sourceNo. 006
It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.
- Work
- De Brevitate Vitae (On the Shortness of Life), ch. I
- Date
- c. AD 49
- Transl.
- John W. Basore (Loeb Classical Library, 1932; public domain in the US)
- Source
- On the Shortness of Life, Chapter I — Wikisource ↗
- Checked
- 2026-10-20 · matched against the cached primary text
- Seneca wrote in Latin. We quote only Basore's public-domain translation, because many modern translations are still under copyright.
Cite-safe version
“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.” — Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, ch. I (tr. John W. Basore, 1932)