No one is so old as to think that he may not live a year.
Cicero On Old Age (44 BCE) Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- Written in 44 BCE, when Cicero was sixty-two, as a dialogue in which the elder Cato answers younger men's fears about age.
- Why
- Cato is explaining why old men still plant and plan, even for things they will not see.
What it means
Cicero notices that nobody, however old, actually believes this is their last year. He treats that as a resource rather than a delusion.
People at every age plan, plant and begin. The habit of looking one year ahead is part of what keeps a life moving.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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On Old Age, 44 BCE
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