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Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: 4.33 what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justic
by aitchnyu 7y ago
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius:
4.33 what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself.
4.48 Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man - yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.
- emptybits 7y agoWhy, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death? - Epictetus
- zubspace 7y agoI recently heard of Terror Managment Theory [1]. Sounds a lot like it. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory
- tempguy9999 7y agoWhat's wrong with good old-fashioned greed and selfishness?
- Razengan 7y agoHaving the most fun before death, everyone and everything else be damned?
- gerbilly 7y agoAct only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative
- jdc 7y agoI think this is all a way of saying "don't wait for Judgment Day to get your shit together."
- Barrin92 7y agoit diminishes the empathy and care you're willing to provide for others and maybe even worse it puts you into a never-ending rat race that you ultimately can't win, which is the point of most of these quotes. Greed just tends to cause more greed, with no tranquillity in sight. It's not even a super deep insight or anything but it's still surprising how little attention it gets.
- nindalf 7y agoTime to re-read Meditations. I don’t remember any of what I read 5 years ago. On one hand it makes me sad that I’ve forgotten so much wisdom but I’m happy I get to rediscover it now.
- henriquemaia 7y ago> but I’m happy I get to rediscover it now.. This is much more in line with the passage quoted above. Enjoy what you have while you have it. "This alone".
- mikekchar 7y agoI discovered once that humans don't usually remember that which they do not understand. As your understanding grows, so will your memory of it. It may be necessary to re-experience a thing many times before you understand it well enough to remember it.