Learned lately that the phrase “ars longa, vita brevis” comes from Seneca’s De brevitate vitæ (On the Short Life; I read the translation, of course): “vitam brevem esse, longam artem.” This in turn comes from Greek, from Hippocrates’s Aphorisms: “Ho bíos brakhús, he dè tékhne makré.”

:: Feb.18.2006 :: bon-vivant :: 1 Comment »