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Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
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Variant on aphorism "Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die tomorrow" pre-dating Gandhi, variously attributed to Isidore of Seville (c. 560 - 636), in FPA Book of Quotations (1952) by Franklin Pierce Adams, or to Edmund Rich (1175 – 1240) in American Journal of Education (1877).
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A similar quote was told in a [hadith], by [Muhammad]. He said: " Live for your afterlife as if you will die tomorrow, and live for this life as if you will live forever".
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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."
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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."

 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma)

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