The Rambler

Life is long enough if you use it

Echoes

Johnson says “we want not time, but diligence, for great performances”, and that we squander much of our allowance while thinking it insufficient. The passage credits no one.

1. c. 49 CE

   “We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it: life is long enough to carry out the most important projects”

   Seneca, On the Shortness of Life. Earliest we can find, about 1,700 years earlier.

2. 1751

   “that we want not time, but diligence, for great performances; and that we squander much of our allowance, even while we think it sparing and insufficient.”