Marcus Aurelius: “How quickly all things disappear,--in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them.”

Do not then consider life a thing of any value. + For look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is before thee, another boundless space.

Labor not unwillingly, nor without regard to the common interest, nor without due consideration, nor with distraction; nor let studied ornament set off thy thoughts, and be not either a man of many words, or busy about too many things.

Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks.

Either there is a fatal necessity and invincible order, or a kind providence, or a confusion without a purpose and without a director (iv. 27).