Soon you’ll be ashes, or bones. A mere name, at most – and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale and trivial. Dogs snarling at each other. Quarreling children – laughing and then bursting into tears a moment later. Trust, shame, justice, truth – “gone from the earth and only found in heaven.”
Why are you still here? Sensory objects are shifting and unstable; our senses dim and easily deceived; the soul itself a decoction of the blood; fame in a world like this is worthless.
-And so?
Wait for it patiently – annihilation or metamorphosis.
-And until that time comes-what?
Honor and revere the divine, treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant of others and strict with yourself. Remember, nothing belongs to you but your flesh and blood – and nothing else is under your control.
– Marcus Aurelius