Ars longa, vita brevis.
Common Latin proverb. However (and probably everybody else knows this) I was fascinated to by the Greek original, Hippocrates of Cos, Aphorism 1:
Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή, ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὀξύς, ἡ δὲ πεῖρα σφαλερή, ἡ δὲ κρίσις χαλεπή. δεῖ δὲ οὐ μόνον ἑωυτὸν παρέχειν τὰ δέοντα ποιέοντα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν νοσέοντα καὶ τοὺς παρεόντας καὶ τὰ ἔξωθεν.
The “art” (τέχνη) to which Hippocrates is referring is medical practice, and note that the order of the clauses is reversed in the Greek, emphasizing “Life is short, but the art is long…” And yes, I think the definite article should be rendered in English, though not so much with the following two. While the Latin still works as nice general aphorism, I’ll never look at it quite the same way again. 