Good-hearted reader

The best days of life for miserable mortals
flee first: diseases and sad old age approach,
And labor and the harsh cruelty of death snatch them away.

If one were to collect similar sayings from the other poets, such as Lucretius, Ovidius, Gallus, Iuvenalis, Manilius, Statius, Seneca, Silius, it would become much too long.

Seneca was a God-fearing, wise pagan who wrote to Lucilius as follows: Punctum est quod viuimus & adhuc puncto minus. Our life is a point or a minute, and even less than a point. Likewise: Omnis dies, omnis hora quam nihil simus ostendit. Every day, every hour shows how nothing we are. One may also read Plinius, Book 7.

In the colloquy between Emperor Hadrianus and the philosopher Epictetus, man is also aptly described, among other things, as follows: HAD. What is man? EPICT. Like fruit: just as fruit hangs on trees, so too are our bodies; they either fall when ripe, or if quickly, they tumble down unripe. HAD. What is man? EPICT. Like a lantern placed in the wind. HAD. What is man? EPICT. A guest of place, an image of law, a fable of calamity, a slave of death, a delay of life, with whom fortune often plays its games. Plutarchus cites from Aristoteles that Midas captured a wood-man while hunting, who, when asked about man, at first did not want to answer. Finally, when he was pressured with force, he said: O semen non durabile, natum ex calamitoso patre & iniusta fortuna: Quid me cogitis dicere, O non-durable seed, born of a calamitous father and unjust fortune: Why do you compel me to speak,