'Of the Shortness of Life' Summary

In chapter 1 Seneca counters the complaint that life is too short with the view that life is long enough if well-managed. Chapters 2 to 9 survey the many ways in which life is squandered and time frittered away by those people (occupati) engrossed in pointless pursuits. Chapters 10 to 17 contrast the philosophical approach to leisure (otium) with the deluded common approach. This culminates in chapters 18 to 20 showing the emancipation of the wise, who can soar above the lives of others mired in endless preoccupation.

After the introduction (§1), Seneca reviews (§2–3) the distractions which make life seem short, and explains that people are great wasters of time. He then offers (§4–6) three examples of famous Romans (Augustus, Cicero and Livius Drusus) who, in various ways, were victims of the engrossed life. He explains (§7–8) that the engrossed do not know how to live or have awareness, and that they waste time because they do not know its value. One should purposefully live for the moment (§9), because tomorrow will be too late. In contrast (§10) the lives of the engrossed seem so short to them because they are constrained to the fleeting present, and recollect the past in pain. They desperately cling on to life (§11) because they haven't lived, unlike the wise, who are always ready to leave life behind. The engrossed include those who live in leisure and luxury (§12), and Seneca explains (§13) that even those who devote themselves to scholarship are wasting their time if their efforts are directed to no end. Accordingly, (§14–15) only those who dedicate their time properly truly live, becoming equal with the great minds of the past, allowing the mind of the sage to even transcend time, like a god. The engrossed, on the other hand, (§16–17) are prey to fidgety and contradictory moods, and their joys and pleasures are bitter with the sense of precariousness. Finally (§18–19) Seneca exhorts Paulinus to abandon public occupations and adopt the contemplative life of the wise, free from the passions. This is contrasted (§20) with the suffering of the engrossed: they die without having ever lived.