Marcus Aurelius: “Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.”

For every judgment and movement and desire and aversion is within, and no evil ascends so high.

A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.

Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not allowed; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries.

How quickly all things disappear,--in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them.