Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.53.2 · 2.53.2
Spend it fast
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ὥστε ταχείας τὰς ἐπαυρέσεις καὶ πρὸς τὸ τερπνὸν ἠξίουν ποιεῖσθαι, ἐφήμερα τά τε σώματα καὶ τὰ χρήματα ὁμοίως ἡγούμενοι.
So they thought it right to make their enjoyments quick and aimed at what is pleasant, since they considered their bodies and their possessions alike to be things of a day.
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The setting
Because bodies and goods both seemed to last only a day, people hurried after quick enjoyment.
A note on this passage
The noun epaurēsis means the taking of a benefit or enjoyment, and Thucydides puts it in the plural with tacheias, "swift." People wanted pleasures that came fast, and the sentence follows pros to terpnon, "toward what is pleasant," with a second goal. Ēxioun, from axioō, carries the sense of thinking it right or fitting, so the choice is presented as a judgment people made and held to.
The reason arrives in the last clause. Ephēmera is "of a day," built on hēmera, "day," and it is the word for things that last a short time. He applies it to sōmata and chrēmata, bodies and money, with homoiōs, "alike," so both are spoken of as equally temporary.
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