Life's Too Short To Waste

Everything is a matter of life & death

“Does thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.”

—Benjamin Franklin

“On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero... You have to give up. You have to know, not think, that someday you will die. Until you know that, you are useless.”

—Fight Club

Time. We have only time.

Making The Most Of It

“Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche

What are you doing? is a better question than what will you do?

Everyone has an expiration date. Like the Replicants in Bladerunner, we are all born with incept dates. One day we will die, and as we get older the day of reckoning draws nearer and the days become fewer and ever more precious. The end is nigh.

For A Limited Time Only

Death is not the only thing time has going for it. In the twilight years, people often wish they had done things differently. They long to have their youth back, but the time they have left is not the same as the time that has past them by. Many of life’s twists and turns are

We have only time. In 100 years or less, we die.

What we do between now and the moment of our death is the only power we have.

What are fleeting trifles like money and emotions compared to that ultimate end?

What can we do in one human lifetime? What won’t we do because we squander our minutes, hours, days and years? What kind of life is it to fear pursuing your purpose out of emotional angst? It is not living, it is dying, shortening the time we have to truly live, an incremental death with an invisible murder weapon: idleness. Doing nothing is doing something.

Killing time is incremental suicide

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”

—Harriet Breecher Stowe

Every hour poured into a trivial pursuit without lasting value is like blood leeched from our veins, sand poured out of our hourglass to blow away in the wind of time and nonexistence. Wastes of time are parasites sapping our life away.

We’re expected to shuffle through life like we have all the time in the world. But we don’t. We’re slowly realizing that. And we’re very pissed off.

"Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness–if you had little time left to live–you would waste precious little of it! Well, I'm telling you...you do have a terminal illness: It's called birth. You don't have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason--or you will never be at all."

—Dan Millman, The Peaceful Warrior

After Life

“A man exists for a generation, but his name lasts to the end of time.”

—Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

Whatever happens to you after you die, what about the rest of us? The world goes on without the dead, and the world you leave is your legacy here.

Music And Life by Alan Watts

"Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles.
Victim of your folly."

—Frank Herbert, Dune

“Let me at least not die without a struggle, ingloriously. But instead, to achieve some great triumph first, that men shall come to know of it.”

—Homer, Hector in The Iliad

“The man who would be a warrior considers it his most basic intention to keep death always in mind, day and night, from the time he first picks up his chopsticks in celebrating his morning meal on New Year’s Day to the evening of the last day of the year. When one constantly keeps death in mind, both loyalty and filial piety are realized, myriad evils and disasters are avoided, one is without illness and mishap, and lives out a long life. In addition, even his character is improved. Such are the many benifits of this act."

—Daidoji Yuzan, Budoshoshinshu: The Warrior’s Primer

“Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.”

—Yamamoto TsunetomoHagakure

“Wise men and fools, you’ll get the fire. You’ll never get out of this world alive. Don’t run and hide, its no use I know; sooner or later we all make the little flowers grow.”

—Snog, Buy Me... I’ll Change Your Life

“Danger is a biological necessity for men like sleep and dreams. If you face death, for that time for the period of direct confrontation you are immortal. For the western middle classes, danger is a rarity and erupts only with a sudden random shock. And yet we are in danger at all times, since our death exists. Mektoub, it is written, waiting to present the aspect of surprised recognition. Is there a technique for confronting death without immediate physical danger? These are the questions...”

—William S. Borroughs, The Road To The Western Lands

"There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing left to pursue."

—Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

"In all dealings with people, it is essential to have a fresh approach. One should constantly give the impression that he is doing something exceptional. It is said that this is possible with but a little understanding."

—Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

"The end is important in all things." If things end badly, all good that may have come before it will be erased. One must stay focused on every present moment, and in this way will never be found negligent."

—Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure