"Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be ! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them ; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity - time ! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay. "

Seneca

"Rien, Lucilius, ne nous appartient; seul le temps est à nous. Ce bien fugitif et glissant est l'unique possession que nous ait départie la Nature; et peut nous en chasser qui veut. Telle est la folie des humains qu'ils se sentent redevables du moindre cadeau peu coûteux qu'on leur fait, cadeau remplaçable en tout cas, mais que personne ne s'estime redevable du temps qu'il a reçu en partage, alors que le plus reconnaissant des hommes ne pourrait le rendre"

Senèque