Odes

Live one day at a time

Earliest we can find

This is the earliest source we can find for the idea. Said again in 10 books on our list: Seneca, Moral Letters (64 CE), Gospel of Matthew (c. 80 to 90 CE), Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. 175), Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (c. 1120), Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (1427), Michel de Montaigne, Essays (1580), Carl Hilty, Happiness (1891), William Osler, A Way of Life (1913), Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948) and Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (1997).

1. “A wise deity shrouds in obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that which is present.”