Carpe Diem
To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
—Robert Herrick (1648).
You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.
—Albert Camus, Notebooks, 1935-1951.
I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.
—Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia.