Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
Marcus wrote the Meditations as private notes to himself, in Greek, and never intended them for publication. The very next note observes that a person who minds only his own conduct is spared a great deal of trouble.
Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.
How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only to what he does himself, that it may be just and pure.
If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players;
Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me –