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About this quote

What does it mean?
Spend your time wisely on all duties, and in your final years, reveal your true character.
In plain terms
Use your time well and show your true self at the end.
What can you take from it?
Live intentionally and let your life reflect your values.

Where it applies

  • personal reflection
  • career planning
  • life review

Putting it to work

  • set yearly goals
  • audit daily habits

Questions to consider

  • What do you want your last chapter to show?
  • How are you spending your time today?

Another view

It assumes everyone has the agency to shape their final years.

More from Andrew Marvell

  1. I would Love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than e…

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  2. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.

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  3. Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way To walk, and pass our long love's day.

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