Martial on Life

“He who thinks that the lives of Priam and of Nestor were long is much deceived and mistaken. Life consists not in living, but in enjoying health.”

“Cras vives; hodie jam vivere, Postume, serum est. Ille sapit, quisquis, Postume, vixit heri. To-morrow I will live, the fool does say; To-day itself's too late, the wise lived yesterday.”

“Non est, crede mihi sapientis dicere "vivam." Sera nimis vita est crastina, vive hodie. It is not, believe me, the act of a wise man to say, "I will live." To-morrow's life is too late; live to-day.”

“Ampliat ætatis spatium sibi vir bonus: hoc est vivere bis, vita posse priore frui. A good man doubles the length of his existence; to have lived so as to look back with pleasure on our past existence is to live twice.”