On Life and Living
~ Seneca and Kierkegaard~
Seneca (4 BC. - 65 AD)
-[On "the shortness of life"]
The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today… The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.
- [On busyness, "the dual demon of distraction and preoccupation"]
Everyone hustles his life along, and is troubled by a longing for the future and weariness of the present. But the man who … organizes every day as though it were his last, neither longs for nor fears the next day….
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Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
- [On busyness, "the distraction from living" and from "boredom"]
Generally, those who do not bore themselves are busy in the world in one way or another, but for that very reason they are, of all people, the most boring of all, the most unbearable... The other class of human beings, the superior ones, are those who bore themselves....
- [On "idleness" and "boredom"]
Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; on the contrary, it is a truly divine life, if one is not bored.... Idleness, then, is so far from being the root of evil that it is rather the true good. Boredom is the root of evil; it is that which must be held off. Idleness is not the evil; indeed, it may be said that everyone who lacks a sense for it thereby shows that he has not raised himself to the human level.
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