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“People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. And those after them in turn. Until their memory, passed
by lordleft 7y ago
“People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. And those after them in turn. Until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, gutters and goes out.”
Marcus Aurelius
"19. You may be unconquerable, if you enter into no combat in which it is not in your own control to conquer. When, therefore, you see anyone eminent in honors, or power, or in high esteem on any other account, take heed not to be hurried away with the appearance, and to pronounce him happy; for, if the essence of good consists in things in our own control, there will be no room for envy or emulation. But, for your part, don't wish to be a general, or a senator, or a consul, but to be free; and the only way to this is a contempt of things not in our own control."
Epictetus
- tkjef 7y agoone of many great lessons in that book. happy to have finally read it after it came up on here a few times.
- ImaCake 7y agoI have found it a real slog (challenge), and gave up after chapter 3. I think the lack of context made it a bit dull for me. Maybe I should try an annotated text to see if holds my attention better!
- cptnapalm 7y agoIt's something to dip into. It's remarkable that it survived at all, seeing as it was just his personal "notebook".
- tkjef 7y agoi found the 1st chapter to be a bit of a slog as you say, but after that it picked up for me. and there were hints of what was to come in the 1st chapter. but 100%, it was a little challenging to get into initially. i also took breaks reading it as i read other books. it can definitely be digested piecemeal as it's a collection of thoughts.
- ALittleLight 7y agoThe Aurelius quote is a bit ironic since Aurelius is still remembered despite the passage of many generations.
- leoh 7y agoYes, but would you listen to someone who wasn't?
- andreilys 7y agoOn a long enough timeline the memory of Marcus Aurelius will extinguish.
- reroute1 7y ago“On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”
- OscarCunningham 7y agoThat's a strong claim given that we don't yet fully understand the laws of physics.
- andreilys 7y agoIt's a pretty open-ended claim, I'm happy to hear your rebuttal though if you think Marcus Auerlis will be remembered 1,000 to 1 billion+ years from now.
- mentos 7y agoWhat if the universe repeats itself? "What we do in life, echoes in eternity"
- OscarCunningham 7y agoIf humanity survives, which isn't guaranteed but has some chance, then I think it's almost certain that there will be people who care about early writers, in the same way that classicists exist today.