Sed breve nobis tempus nos fecimus: quantulum enim studiis partimur? Alias horas vanus salutandi labor, alias datum fabulis otium, alias spectacula, alias convivia trahunt. Adice tot genera ludendi et insanam corporis curam, peregrinationes, rura, calculorum anxiam sollicitudinem, invitamenta libidinum et vinum et fractis omni genere voluptatum animis ne ea quidem tempora idonea quae supersunt.
[But we make the time short for ourselves, for how little is set aside for study? The empty work of paying visits removes some hours, idle time spent gossiping removes some more hours, the theater some more, and dinner parties some more. Add to these so many kinds of entertainment and unhealthy care of the body, travel, the countryside, anxious counting of profits and losses, the allurements of sex and wines. And sufficient time for study certainly does not remain to our minds, damaged by all kinds of pleasures of the soul.]
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (fl. 35–100 C.E.), Institutio oratoria, XII.11.18
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