Letter 117 — On Real Ethics as Superior to Syllogistic Subtleties (§32)

“Nature has not given us such a generous and free-handed space of time that we can have the leisure to waste any of it. Mark also how much is lost even when men are very careful: people are robbed of one thing by ill-health and of another thing by illness in the family; at one time private, at another public, business absorbs the attention; and all the while sleep shares our lives with us. Out of this time, so short and swift, that carries us away in its flight, of what avail is it to spend the greater part on useless things?”