Of the Shortness of Life by Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE - 65)

Seneca the Younger wrote the moral essay "De Brevitate Vitae" — "On the Shortness of Life" — to his friend Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives man enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly.