Plain
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

A person with good judgment should think about what people really are — the people whose opinions create honor and reputation. They should also think about what it means to die. If you consider death by itself, stripped of all the frightening images we usually attach to it, you see it's just a natural process. Anyone who fears nature's work is like a child. Death is not only natural — it actually helps nature along.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 10 Book 2 · 11 of 20
Death & Mortality Calm Your Mind
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

It is the part of a man endowed with a good understanding faculty, to consider what they themselves are in very deed, from whose bare conceits and voices, honour and credit do proceed: as also what it is to die, and how if a man shall consider this by itself alone, to die, and separate from it in his mind all those things which with it usually represent themselves unto us, he can conceive of it no otherwise, than as of a work of nature, and he that fears any work of nature, is a very child. Now death, it is not only a work of nature, but also conducing to nature.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 10 Book 2 · 11 of 20
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Think about how quickly everything dissolves and breaks down. Bodies and substances return to the basic matter of the world. Their memories fade into the flow of time. Think about the nature of all the things you can see and touch in this world. Especially those that trap you with pleasure, or frighten you with pain, or dazzle you with their shine and status. See how cheap and worthless they really are. How low and rotting. How empty of real life and meaning.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 9 Book 2 · 10 of 20
Death & Mortality What Matters Most
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Consider how quickly all things are dissolved and resolved: the bodies and substances themselves, into the matter and substance of the world: and their memories into the general age and time of the world. Consider the nature of all worldly sensible things; of those especially, which either ensnare by pleasure, or for their irksomeness are dreadful, or for their outward lustre and show are in great esteem and request, how vile and contemptible, how base and corruptible, how destitute of all true life and being they are.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 9 Book 2 · 10 of 20
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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