Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.
From his personal reflections, Marcus Aurelius urges contemplation on the state of one's being at the moment of death and the vastness of time.
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Further, he was not fond of change nor unsteady, but he loved to stay in the same places, and to employ himself about the same things; and after his paroxysms of headache he came immediately fresh and vigorous to his usual occupations.
How quickly all things disappear,--in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them.
But if there is a providence which allows itself to be propitiated, make thyself worthy of the help of the divinity.
He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready to forgive, and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a man who could not be diverted from right, rather than of a man who had been improved.
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