December 28

IF you should live 3000 years, or as many as 10,000, yet remember this, that man can part with no life properly save with that little part of life which he now lives: and that which he lives is no other than that which at every instant he parts with. That life then which is longest of duration, and that which is shortest, come both to one effect. For although in regard to the life which is already past there may be some inequality, yet that time which is now present and in being is equal for all men. And that being the only time which we part with when we die, it manifestly appears that it can be but a moment of time that we then part with. For as for that which is either past or to come, a man cannot be said properly to part with it. For how should a man part with that which he does not have?

EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book iv. §9. ¶2.