art is long, life is short

English

Alternative forms

  • life is short, art is long
  • life is temporary, art is forever
  • life is short

Etymology

Calque of Latin ars longa, vīta brevis

Proverb

art is long, life is short

  1. Art is more enduring than an individual's lifetime.
    • August 24, 2017, Passport Magazine, Hong Kong:
      In the side of a storage structure, I note a surely-not-officially sanctioned graffiti slogan, "Art is Long, Life is Short".
    • 2002, Edmund White, Loss Within Loss: Artists in the Age of AIDS:
      Remembrance of Things Past Marc Lida's Proust Watercolors Jonathan Weinberg "Art is long, life is short," or so we are told.
    • 2011, Benjamin Franklin with John Bigelow, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself:
      Alas! art is long and life is short! My friends would comfort me with the idea of a name, they say I shall leave behind me; and they tell me I have lived long enough to nature and to glory .

Translations

See also

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