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

art is more enduring than life

• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ὁ βίος βραχύς ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή (ho bíos brakhús hē dè tékhnē makrḗ)

• Latin: ars longa, vīta brevis, vita brevis, ars longa,
• Russian: жизнь коротка́, иску́сство ве́чно (žiznʹ korotká, iskússtvo véčno)

See also

• afterlife