#brevity — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #brevity, aggregated by home.social.
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The man four stories up
The man four stories up,
shielded by the shadow
of a floor-to-ceiling window,
appears as smooth
as the man in the moon.
He sips something hot
from a white ceramic cup
and peers out at the blackness
as if we’re all coated in the stuff,
while he is light, and goodness.
A cleanliness amidst the putrid
stenches, the barefoot beggars,
and oily street merchants
blurred together in a pit
of city scum.
See, below him, beings
exist in a lower state
of consciousness
and should simply lighten up.
©2026 | K.F. HartlessCover Art: “The Man in the Moon” Maxfield Parrish, 1922
https://youtu.be/Wy45pE0OJm4?si=vabBGj46pwfTDFCg
#brevity #existential #moon #Reflection #socialJustice -
Memento mori — remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die — what makes this any different from a half hour?
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Path of Life [Calendar of Wisdom; Круг чтения], ch. 21 “Living in the Present,” sec. 5.12 (1903-1911) [(tr. Cote (2002)]More about this quote: wist.info/tolstoy-leo/83806/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #tolstoy #leotolstoy #pathoflife #brevity #death #goodliving #lifespan #living #mementomori #mortality #prioritization #timelimit
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May I direct your attention to this brilliantly concise post?
The Courage to Stop https://zeldman.com/2026/04/15/the-courage-to-stop/ #Brevity, #Communication, #Edit, #Editing, #Essentials, #KillYourDarlings, #LessButBetter, #Usability, #Whitespace
#AmReading #Writing -
The intensity of the favour of fortune is often balanced by the shortness of its duration, for fortune gets tired of carrying any one very long upon her shoulders.
[Recompénsase tal vez la brevedad de la duración con la intensión del favor. Cánsase la fortuna de llevar a uno a cuestas tan a la larga.]Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 38 (1647) [tr. Duff (1877)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #brevity #fortune #gambling #goodluck #luck
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The intensity of the favour of fortune is often balanced by the shortness of its duration, for fortune gets tired of carrying any one very long upon her shoulders.
[Recompénsase tal vez la brevedad de la duración con la intensión del favor. Cánsase la fortuna de llevar a uno a cuestas tan a la larga.]Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 38 (1647) [tr. Duff (1877)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #brevity #fortune #gambling #goodluck #luck
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The intensity of the favour of fortune is often balanced by the shortness of its duration, for fortune gets tired of carrying any one very long upon her shoulders.
[Recompénsase tal vez la brevedad de la duración con la intensión del favor. Cánsase la fortuna de llevar a uno a cuestas tan a la larga.]Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 38 (1647) [tr. Duff (1877)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #brevity #fortune #gambling #goodluck #luck
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The intensity of the favour of fortune is often balanced by the shortness of its duration, for fortune gets tired of carrying any one very long upon her shoulders.
[Recompénsase tal vez la brevedad de la duración con la intensión del favor. Cánsase la fortuna de llevar a uno a cuestas tan a la larga.]Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 38 (1647) [tr. Duff (1877)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #brevity #fortune #gambling #goodluck #luck
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2/2 Don’t skip the footnote and comments.
“COMMENTS BY REVIEWER A:
I have studied this manuscript very carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw in either design or writing style. I suggest it be
published without revision. Clearly it is the most concise manuscript I have ever seen …” -
Why do so few scientists use Fahrenheit? According to Isaac Asimov, the original 100°F "fixed point" may have been based on a sick cow with a fever. A 300-year-old error that still dictates US weather today. Precision matters. #HistoryOfScience #Physics #Brevity #Celsius
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82791…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #brevity #enjoyment #passageoftime #play #playing #sloth #summer #time #vacation #relaxation
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82791…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #brevity #enjoyment #passageoftime #play #playing #sloth #summer #time #vacation #relaxation
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82791…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #brevity #enjoyment #passageoftime #play #playing #sloth #summer #time #vacation #relaxation
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82791…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #brevity #enjoyment #passageoftime #play #playing #sloth #summer #time #vacation #relaxation
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82791…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #brevity #enjoyment #passageoftime #play #playing #sloth #summer #time #vacation #relaxation
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Qodo's #AI apparently "outshines" #Claude in code reviews, but you'd need a PhD in #jargon to figure out how. 🤖✨ Instead of book reviews, maybe they should book a course in #brevity. 🧠💼
https://www.qodo.ai/blog/qodo-outperforms-claude-in-code-review-benchmark/ #Qodo #CodeReviews #HackerNews #ngated -
Whene’er you lecture, be concise: the soul
Takes in short maxims, and retains them whole:
But pour in water when the vessel’s filled,
It simply dribbles over and is spilled.
[Quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta
percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles:
omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 335ff (2.3.335-337) (19 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/33634/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #advice #brevity #briefness #counsel #edification #keepitsimple #lesson #maxim #moral #moralizing #precept #succinct #teaching #wisdom
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Dear sire, and offspring worthy of your fire!
We bards are dupes to what ourselves admire.
Would I be brief — I grow confused and coarse;
Who aims at smoothness, fails in fire and force;
In him who soars aloft, bombast is found;
Who fears to face the tempest, crawls aground.
Who courts variety and fain would ring
A thousand changes on the self-same string,
Will paint, as ’twere in fancy’s wildest mood
Boars in the wave and dolphins in the wood.
Thus even error, shun’d without address,
Breeds error, diff’rent in its kind, not less.
[Maxima pars vatum, pater et iuvenes patre digni,
decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro,
obscurus fio; sectantem levia nervi
deficiunt animique; professus grandia turget;
serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae:
qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
delphinum silvis adpingit, fluctibus aprum:
in vitium ducit culpae fuga, si caret arte.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 24ff (2.3.24-31) (19 BC) [tr. Howes (1845)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/14582/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #arspoetica #poet #bombast #brevity #brief #caution #clarity #criticism #edit #error #explanation #extremes #faults #force #mistake #obscurity #overcompensation #overcorrection #poetry #smoothness #strangeness #style #succinctness #talent #timidity #tryingtoohard #unintelligibility #variety #vigor #writing
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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
Tell yourself, when you feel exasperated and out of all patience, that this mortal life endures but a moment; it will not be long before we shall one and all have been laid to rest.
[ὅταν λίαν ἀγανακτῇς ἢ καὶ δυσπαθῇς, ἀκαριαῖος ὁ ἀνθρώπειος βίος καὶ μετ᾿ ὀλίγον πάντες ἐξετάθημεν.]Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 11, ch. 18 (11.18) (AD 161-180) [tr. Staniforth (1964)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/8183…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #anger #annoyance #brevity #death #frustration #grievance #impatience #indignance #life #lifeisshort #loseyourtemper #mortality #passageoftime #provocation #resentment #upset #vexation #worry
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Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
(Attributed)More about this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/81515/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #brevity #mortality #wasteoftime #wastingtime
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Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
(Attributed)More about this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/81515/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #brevity #mortality #wasteoftime #wastingtime
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Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
(Attributed)More about this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/81515/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #brevity #mortality #wasteoftime #wastingtime
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Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
(Attributed)More about this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/81515/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #brevity #mortality #wasteoftime #wastingtime
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What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.
Gene Fowler (1890-1960) American journalist, author, and dramatist. [b. Eugene Devlan]
(Attributed)More about this quote: wist.info/fowler-gene/80854/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #genefowler #achievement #brevity #challengers #fragility #rivalry #success #victory
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📟 Ah, the art of digital stone tablets—aka #UDP7777, the 'pager' for those who never left 1998. 🗿 Forget modern communication; embrace error codes as a love language. 🧑🚀 Welcome to the future, where #brevity is the soul of outdated tech. 🙄
https://www.udp7777.com/ #digitalstone #tablets #pager #retrocommunication #technostalgia #HackerNews #ngated -
GAUNT: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder;
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard II, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 37ff (2.1.37-44) (1595)More info about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #richardii #blowingover #brevity #burningout #fierceness #fuel #selfconsumption #transience
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Kent Dybvig dares to redefine "brevity" by cramming a Scheme machine into 400 lines of C, presumably to make programmers feel inadequate. 🤯 Meanwhile, #GitHub practices its impression of a revolving door—sign in, sign out, repeat ad nauseam. 🔄💻
https://gist.github.com/swatson555/8cc36d8d022d7e5cc44a5edb2c4f7d0b #KentDybvig #Brevity #Challenge #RevolvingDoor #Programming #Humor #HackerNews #ngated -
Kent Dybvig dares to redefine "brevity" by cramming a Scheme machine into 400 lines of C, presumably to make programmers feel inadequate. 🤯 Meanwhile, #GitHub practices its impression of a revolving door—sign in, sign out, repeat ad nauseam. 🔄💻
https://gist.github.com/swatson555/8cc36d8d022d7e5cc44a5edb2c4f7d0b #KentDybvig #Brevity #Challenge #RevolvingDoor #Programming #Humor #HackerNews #ngated -
Kent Dybvig dares to redefine "brevity" by cramming a Scheme machine into 400 lines of C, presumably to make programmers feel inadequate. 🤯 Meanwhile, #GitHub practices its impression of a revolving door—sign in, sign out, repeat ad nauseam. 🔄💻
https://gist.github.com/swatson555/8cc36d8d022d7e5cc44a5edb2c4f7d0b #KentDybvig #Brevity #Challenge #RevolvingDoor #Programming #Humor #HackerNews #ngated -
Kent Dybvig dares to redefine "brevity" by cramming a Scheme machine into 400 lines of C, presumably to make programmers feel inadequate. 🤯 Meanwhile, #GitHub practices its impression of a revolving door—sign in, sign out, repeat ad nauseam. 🔄💻
https://gist.github.com/swatson555/8cc36d8d022d7e5cc44a5edb2c4f7d0b #KentDybvig #Brevity #Challenge #RevolvingDoor #Programming #Humor #HackerNews #ngated -
A quotation from La Rochefoucauld
There are people who resemble popular songs: they are sung for a time and then forgotten.
[Il y a des gens qui ressemblent aux vaudevilles, qu’on ne chante qu’un certain temps.]François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶211 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #brevity #briefness #celebrity #fad #fickleness #forgotten #outoffashion #people #popularity #tophit #types
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The first quarter-century of your life was doubtless lived under the cloud of being too young for things, while the last quarter-century would normally be shadowed by the still darker cloud of being too old for them; and between those two clouds, what small and narrow sunlight illumines a human lifetime!
James Hilton (1900-1954) Anglo-American novelist and screenwriter
Lost Horizon, ch. 8 [High Lama] (1933)More info about this quote: wist.info/hilton-james/79489/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jameshilton #losthorizon #shangrila #age #brevity #elderly #humancondition #lifetime #oldage #transience #youth
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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.
[Ἐγγὺς μὲν ἡ σὴ περὶ πάντων λήθη, ἐγγὺς δὲ ἡ πάντων περὶ σοῦ λήθη.]Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 7, ch. 21 (7.21) (AD 161-180) [tr. Staniforth (1964)]More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/7926…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #marcusaureliusmeditations #remembrance #afterlife #brevity #death #fame #forget #forgotten #history #passageoftime #past #renown #reputation #time #transience #unimportance #marchoftime #timemarcheson
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It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depth of affliction!
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1859-09-30), Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, MilwaukeeSourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5534…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abelincoln #abrahamlincoln #abrahamlincolnquotes #briefness #brevity #future #impermanence #mementomori #passageoftime #passing #temporary #transitory
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It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depth of affliction!
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1859-09-30), Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, MilwaukeeSourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5534…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abelincoln #abrahamlincoln #abrahamlincolnquotes #briefness #brevity #future #impermanence #mementomori #passageoftime #passing #temporary #transitory
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It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depth of affliction!
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1859-09-30), Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, MilwaukeeSourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5534…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abelincoln #abrahamlincoln #abrahamlincolnquotes #briefness #brevity #future #impermanence #mementomori #passageoftime #passing #temporary #transitory
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🧐 So you wrote a "simple" coding agent in 94 lines of #Ruby, huh? 🚀 Wow, truly groundbreaking—if only the rest of us had thought of removing comments and whitespace to achieve such brevity! 😂 Meanwhile, Thorsten Ball's 400 lines in #Go is probably just him being humble with actual #functionality.
https://radanskoric.com/articles/coding-agent-in-ruby #codingagent #brevity #humor #HackerNews #ngated -
A quotation from Thomas Fuller
Since Life is so very short, live as much as thou canst in so short a Time.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 1757 (1727)Sourcing, notes: wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/7…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #brevity #carpediem #gusto #life #livefortheday #liveforthemoment #livefortoday #living #mortality #seizetheday #seizethemoment
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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
He that does a Memorable Action, and those that Report it, are all but short-liv’d Things.
[Πᾶν ἐφήμερον, καὶ τὸ μνημονεῦον καὶ τὸ μνημονευόμενον.]Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 35 (4.35) (AD 161-180) [tr. Collier (1701)]Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/7613…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #brevity #brief #historian #history #life #moment #perspective #remembrance #shortlived #transitory
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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
He that does a Memorable Action, and those that Report it, are all but short-liv’d Things.
[Πᾶν ἐφήμερον, καὶ τὸ μνημονεῦον καὶ τὸ μνημονευόμενον.]Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 35 (4.35) (AD 161-180) [tr. Collier (1701)]Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/7613…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #brevity #brief #historian #history #life #moment #perspective #remembrance #shortlived #transitory
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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
He that does a Memorable Action, and those that Report it, are all but short-liv’d Things.
[Πᾶν ἐφήμερον, καὶ τὸ μνημονεῦον καὶ τὸ μνημονευόμενον.]Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 35 (4.35) (AD 161-180) [tr. Collier (1701)]Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/7613…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #brevity #brief #historian #history #life #moment #perspective #remembrance #shortlived #transitory
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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth; and little, too, is the longest fame to come — dependent as it is on a succession of fast-perishing little men who have no knowledge even of their own selves, much less of one long dead and gone.
[μικρὸν μὲν οὖν ὃ ζῇ ἕκαστος: μικρὸν δὲ τὸ τῆς γῆς γωνίδιον ὅπου ζῇ: μικρὸν δὲ καὶ ἡ μηκίστη ὑστεροφημία καὶ αὕτη δὲ κατὰ διαδοχὴν ἀνθρωπαρίων τάχιστα τεθνηξομένων καὶ οὐκ εἰδότων οὐδὲ ἑαυτοὺς οὐδέ γε τὸν πρόπαλαι τεθνηκότα.]Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 3, ch. 10 (3.10) (AD 161-180) [tr. Staniforth (1964)]Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/7602…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #meditations #brevity #fame #forget #humancondition #insignificance #legacy #lifetime #mortality #perspective #posterity #renown
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Ah, #Apple finally decided to break its walled garden for some cozy encrypted chats with #Android peasants 🤖🔒. Meanwhile, The Verge continues its quest of turning a simple announcement into a labyrinth of ads and logos 🌀📱. Apparently, #brevity wasn't on today's menu. 🍏💬
https://www.theverge.com/news/629620/apple-iphone-e2ee-encryption-rcs-messaging-android #EncryptedChats #TheVerge #TechNews #HackerNews #ngated -
New #review today: "There is the bare minimum of information available about the underground 1970 band from Chicago called #Brevity. I can only assume that Brevity’s Home Is Where Your Dog Is was a one-and-done. Recorded by #FrankZappa's Straight/Bizarre label, the album sat in the vaults for over 50 years before being unearthed, lovingly restored by Prof. Stoned, and now released on #ThinkLikeAKey..." #ExposeOnline #PsychedelicRock http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/brevity-home-is-where-your-dog-is-6.html
