Laudator Temporis Acti

Cicero, On Old Age 19.69 (tr. William Armistead Falconer):

Hours and days, and months and years, go by; the past returns no more, and what is to be we cannot know; but whatever the time given us in which to live, we should therewith be content.

horae quidem cedunt et dies et menses et anni, nec praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest. quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse contentus.

J.G.F. Powell ad loc.:

horae quidem cedunt Cf. Tusc. 1.76 volat aetas; Ov. Ars am. 3.64; Virg. Georg. 3.284; Sen. Ep. 123.10; Marbod, Lib. dec. cap. 9.75ff.

quod cuique temporis ... contentus That one should be content with one's allotted lifespan is a common moralistic theme, and appears often in consolatory literature. Cf. the next section; Tusc. 1.109 nemo parum diu vivit qui virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere; Phil. 2.119; Lucr. 3.931-77 (this is a standard Epicurean theme: see Epicurus, Ep. 3.126; Cic. Fin. 1.63); Sen. Ep. 93.4; 101.15; Marc. 24.1; Benef. 5.17.6; M. Aur. 2.14; 4.50; 12.35 (see below); [Plut.] Cons. ad Apoll. 111a (see below); Milton, Paradise Lost 11.553 (cf. also Sen. Ep. 24.24, quoted on §72).