Why is it that everyone says life is short?

Question

It's the longest thing anyone ever goes through.

Answer 1

Time is the space between one event and another. As a young child you perceive things faster in larger numbers because things seem newer and more strange to you. As you get older, your mind starts to slow down and becomes more acceptant to surroundings, and so the space between one event and another decreases because you are processing less at a slower rate, and so the rate of time relative to you increases, meaning that as you get older, time gets exponentially faster, that is until you die. So life is fairly short.

Answer 2

Well, compared to the earth, which has been around for like 45 billion years, 80 years (which is the average lifespan) is kind of a blip on the radar. I don't know about you guys, but whenever I see a movie like Troy or 300 or something, about stuff that happened back in BC times, it makes me feel so small to know that there were people living their lives like thousands of years before I was even an idea, and I think that's why life feels short.

Answer 3

As you get older, you start feeling that life is really short, and there just isn't enough time or energy to do everything you wished to. So make the best use of youth I say. I liked your question, because, to me, life seems really long. I am not too young but not old either. But I also know, that as we get older...we do realize time's running out. Maybe that also has to do with not living in the moment, and being worried or thinking about the future. When we are totally living in the moment, we aren't worrying bout how much longer we are going to live.

Answer 4

Life is short because it's not possible to ever do all the things you want to. No matter how wonderful and fulfilling your life is, I think everyone has regrets of some sort - something they wish they had done differently or something they always wanted to do "someday." You're correct - life isn't really short - but I think many of us delay the living of our lives.

Answer 5

In the grand scope of things, life is quite short.

I think what is really intended when this phrase is used is that when a moment occurs when you could do something fun/exciting, despite any possibly regret, is that it should be done. That when the moment passes, its gone forever. The moment is short, and life is worth living when there are monumental experiences.

Answer 6

I think its because when we are young, we try to have an idea of what our life will be like as we age and we set so many goals for ourselves and then once you get a certain age (whether it be 20, 30, 40, 50 and so on) you look back and realize that you didn't have enought time to achieve those goals that you once set for yourself and you realize that life really is short.

Answer 7

Because it's finite at all, it's short ... I agree, nothing we do is longer, and when we say it's short it's just a sanctimonious way to remind each other not to waste any of our finite time being miserable when we don't have to. But I think we may understand better why it's "short" when our contemporaries begin to die off of old age.

Answer 8

Someday you want have to ask this question,you will completely understand its meaning. After 60 years you look back on your life,and see how you waisted it things you wish you had done,staying in school and making something of youself. on relationships you wish you had done different.you can never go back so be sure to make ever day count and, don't have the WHATEVER answer for everthing only you can make your life count.

Answer 9

I think people say that when someone's being unproductive, and that they're wasting time by doing nothing.

But like what others said, comparing it to the universe, and the solar system and such, it's quite short.

Answer 10

Comparing human life to geological or stellar evolutionary timescales is a sobering enterprise.

I think that the point is to emphasize that time is precious, and should not be squandered.