Of human life
Time is a point
Substance is in a flux
The perception dull
The composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction
The soul a whirl
Fortune hard to divine
Fame a thing devoid of judgement
-
To say all in a word:
Everything which belongs to the body is a stream
And
What belongs to the soul is a dream and vapour
And
Life is a warfare
And
A strangers sojourn
And
After fame is oblivion
-
What then is that which is able to conduct a man?
-
One thing
One thing
And
Only one:
PHILOSOPHY
This consists in keeping the daemon within a man free from violence
Unharmed
Superior to pains and pleasures
Doing nothing without purpose
Nor yet falsely or with hypocrisy
Not feeling the need of another mans doings or not doing anything
Adapting all that happens
And all that is allotted
As coming from thence
(Where ever it is)
From whence
He himself came
Finally
Waiting for death with a cheerful mind
(As being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements
Of which
Every living being is compounded)
-
So
If there is no harm to the elements themselves
(In each continually changing into another)
Why should Man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution
Of all the elements?
For
It is according to nature.
-
And nothing is evil which is according to nature
-
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONIUS