Men spend their lives in anticipations,--in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time.

Question

But the present time has one advantage over every other--it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

Answer 1

Indeed. The present is all you have, so you may as well enjoy it.

Answer 2

I feel you are answering your own question here. Yes, some people spend their whole lives planning for some future happy point but never in fact get there. And? I am often criticised for not planning enough for the future but then I also attract envy because I have been parachuting, climbed glaciers, dived with sharks and watched a sunset over the equator. I have stood on top of a mountain and thrown myself down it on two bits of wood and adrenalin. I have lain in the snow under a bush with a deer eating five feet away from my nose and not been noticed. By all means plan for the future a bit, but grab the chance to do stuff NOW, because NOW will one day be I WISH I'D ........ The biggest regret most people have as they grow old is not what they have done but what they haven't done. If you want great memories you have to make them yourself. Go Get 'em folks!!!

Answer 3

I was just reading a book, a novel, which is written from the point of view of an American Indian of probably the late 19th or early 20th century. This character says that white men talk about "how they're going to be--somewhere down the line and around the corner--talking about themselves as if they weren't even living yet. Almost all of them--hardly an exception...afraid of being who they are right now." (From "The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon" by Tom Spanbauer).

I agree with this. I think that your quote, though it says "men", is really talking about white men and a sense of alienation that was peculiar to white people. And if it now has spread to other people, it's because white people have made their influence felt all over the world, have remade the world in their image, brought their alienation and their alienating technology to every corner of the globe.

Answer 4

everybody is often like "oh this is gonna be so good!!!!" and would't anticipate issues to ensue. yet in waiting for issues that are supposedly going to be suitable, they get greater expectancies and then while the suitable 2nd is there, it is no longer as candy as they concept it would be. yet while we delight in the moments we've, each and every thing seems sweeter.

Answer 5

Very true if a little verbose.

Answer 6

Thee who hesitates is lost .....

Answer 7

true!,where is that from?

also how do you delete the Q mark??