Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.

How short our span! If you once realized how brief, you would refrain from causing any beast or man the smallest grief, the slightest pain.

We each exist for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe

Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. (Hays translation)

Where I live, everything is very small.

How small the cosmos (a kangaroo's pouch would hold it), how paltry and puny in comparison to human consciousness, to a single individual recollection, and its expression in words!

When I consider the brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which comes before and after — as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day — the small space I occupy and which I see swallowed up in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I know nothing and which know nothing of me, I take fright and am amazed to see myself here rather than there, now rather than then.

When I consider the small span of my life absorbed in the eternity of all time, or the small part of space which I can touch or see engulfed by the infinite immensity of spaces that I know not and that know me not, I am frightened and astonished to see myself here instead of there … now instead of then.

My brothers, the time of our lives is short,

Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.

We live longer
but less precisely
and in shorter sentences.

Each exists for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe.

This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.

The world's a bubble, and the life of man Less than a span.