Years ago I saw unattributed on a .sig line:
   "Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult."

It stuck in my mind — an archetypal aphorism. But only today did I learn that it's the first line in The Aphorisms by Hippocrates, ~400 BCE. Alternative translations include Francis Adams's:
   "Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult."

or perhaps:
   "Life is short, art is long, occasion sudden, experiment dangerous, judgment difficult."

Good advice, for physicians and everyone else....

TopicPhilosophy - TopicLife - 2001-08-28

(correlates: Forrest Gump --- The Movie, MetaJoke2, OnIrreducibility, ...)