Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment.
In his personal meditations, Marcus Aurelius offers a concise and somber summary of the transient and unreliable aspects of human life.
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There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains, and other things infinite.
Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as thy nature leads thee, and to endure that which the common nature brings.
And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou creepest!
What remains, except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between?
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