They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen nor ever will see, this they set much value on.
In his private journal, Marcus Aurelius observes the human tendency to seek praise from future generations rather than from contemporaries.
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The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all thy soul to do justice and to say the truth.
How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man, for it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal!
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.
But if it is easy to set little value on all these things, turn to that which remains, which is to follow reason and God.
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