long life

needs only Fate; right living needs the soul.

Recast in definition form from: “We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly; for to achieve long life you have need of Fate only, but for right living you need the soul.”

includes all these troubles, just as a long journey includes dust and mud and rain.

From: “A long life includes all these troubles, just as a long journey includes dust and mud and rain.”

buys nothing: those who clung to life longest — who buried many — were buried at last too.

Recast in definition form from: “who in their lifetime having buried many, were at the last buried themselves.”

asked for as more sensation, more appetite, more growing and shrinking, or more talk, offers none of these as a worthy object of desire.

Recast in definition form from: “To enjoy the operations of a sensitive soul; or of the appetitive faculty? or wouldst thou grow, and then decrease again? Wouldst thou long be able to talk, to think and reason with thyself? Which of all these seems unto thee a worthy object of thy desire?”

is a gamble: few reach death intact when old age drags on, and there is no crueller loss than losing the power to end one's life.

Recast in definition form from: “… In the end, there is no crueller loss in life …”

of the wrong kind is like the Annals of Tanusius — bulky, and you know what men say of it; some books of very few lines are admirable.

Recast in definition form from: “There are books which contain very few lines, admirable and useful in spite of their size; and there are also the Annals of Tanusius, — you know how bulky the book is, and what men say of it.”

would merely prolong a game of unceasing war with troubles; a species living eight hundred years would let its vices grow until it deserved to be wiped off the earth.

Recast in definition form from: “… life of eight hundred or more years"; for its vices …”

depends neither on years nor days but on the mind: I have lived long enough; I have had my fill; I await death.

Recast in definition form from: “To have lived long enough depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds. I have lived, my dear friend Lucilius, long enough. I have had my fill; I await death.”

long life, n.Definitions

long life