Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

The introduction to the ancient Indian text the Hitopadesha contains the verse "अजरामरवत् प्राज्ञो विद्यामर्थं च चिन्तयेत्। गृहीत इव केशेषु मृत्युना धर्ममाचरेत्॥" ["Acquire learning and wealth as if you'll never grow old or die. Perform good deeds as if Death has already grabbed you by the hair."]

The aphorism "Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die tomorrow" is variously attributed to Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636), in FPA Book of Quotations (1952) by Franklin Pierce Adams, to Edmund Rich (1175–1240) in American Journal of Education (1877), or to Alain de Lille in Samuel Smiles's Duty (1881). | The 1995 book "The good boatman: a portrait of Gandhi," states that Gandhi subscribed "to the view that a man should live thinking he might die tomorrow but learn as if he would live forever." | In his 2010 Boyer lecture Glyn Davis (Professor of Political Science and Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University) attributes the quote to Desiderius Erasmus. "He [Erasmus] reworked Pliny to urge 'live as if you are to die tomorrow, study as if you were to live forever'. Many students obey the first clause - the best heed both." | There is a similar quote by Johann Gottfried Herder: "Mensch, genieße dein Leben, als müssest morgen du weggehn; Schone dein Leben, als ob ewig du weiletest hier." ["Man, enjoy your life as if you were to depart tomorrow; spare your life as if you were to linger here forever."] (Zerstreute Blätter, 1785).