The exact words
“Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή, ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὀξύς, ἡ δὲ πεῖρα σφαλερή, ἡ δὲ κρίσις χαλεπή.”Hippocrates, Aphorisms 1.1. In Francis Adams's translation: “Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult.”
✓ VerifiedFound in a primary source: the original book, speech transcript, letter or recording.
What people get wrong
Common reading
Art lasts forever, while the artist dies.
Art lasts forever, while the artist dies.
Closer to the original
That is a popular modern reading, but the original “art” means a craft or skill, specifically medicine. Hippocrates meant that learning the skill takes longer than a lifetime allows, not that paintings outlive painters.
That is a popular modern reading, but the original “art” means a craft or skill, specifically medicine. Hippocrates meant that learning the skill takes longer than a lifetime allows, not that paintings outlive painters.
Timeline
- c. 400 BCThe Aphorisms, a collection of short medical rules credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates, opens with this sentence. The “art” is medicine, and the point is that a doctor has too little time to learn it and must act quickly anyway.
- c. AD 49The Roman philosopher Seneca quotes “the greatest of physicians” in Latin, “vitam brevem esse, longam artem,” at the start of his essay On the Shortness of Life, and then argues that life is long enough if we don't waste it.
- 1300s–1800sThe phrase spreads through Europe in Latin. Chaucer opens The Parliament of Fowls with “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne,” and Longfellow writes “Art is long, and Time is fleeting.”
Use it in a speech
Hippocrates began his book for doctors with four words we still quote in Latin: ars longa, vita brevis. The craft is long, life is short. So don't wait to start.
~10 secondsto say aloud
Pauseafter “vita brevis”
Best spotthe closing advice
Ars longa, vita brevis: the craft is long and life is short. After forty years, you came as close to mastering ours as anyone I know.
~8 secondsto say aloud
Pauseafter “life is short”
Best spotthe tribute
When Hippocrates wrote that “life is short, and art long,” the art he meant was medicine, and the warning was to doctors who must decide before they can ever know enough.
~9 secondsto say aloud
Pausenone needed in writing
Best spotintroduction
Questions people ask
What does “ars longa, vita brevis” mean?
“Art is long, life is short.” Originally it meant that a skill, especially medicine, takes longer to learn than a lifetime allows.
Who said “ars longa, vita brevis”?
The idea comes from the Greek physician Hippocrates (Aphorisms 1.1). The Latin wording comes from Seneca's essay On the Shortness of Life.
Cite this quote
These cite the original text directly, so you can use them in an essay or paper. Always check your teacher's required style.
MLAHippocrates. Aphorisms. 1.1. c. 400 BC. MIT Internet Classics Archive, classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/aphorisms.1.i.html.
APAHippocrates. (400 B.C.E.). Aphorisms. MIT Internet Classics Archive. http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/aphorisms.1.i.html
CHICAGOHippocrates, Aphorisms, 1.1, c. 400 BC.
IN TEXT (APA)(Hippocrates)