What is it then that will stick with you and follow you? Only one thing: philosophy. And philosophy means this — to protect the spirit within you from all insults and injuries, from all pain and pleasure. Never act rashly or fake or with hypocrisy. Depend entirely on yourself and your own actions. Accept all things that happen to you with contentment, since they come from the same source you came from. And above all, wait for death with gentleness and calm cheerfulness. Death is nothing but the breaking apart of the elements that make up every living thing. If the elements themselves are not harmed by constantly changing into each other, why should anyone fear this common dissolution and change? This is how nature works. And nothing that follows nature can be evil.
What is it then that will adhere and follow? Only one thing, philosophy. And philosophy doth consist in this, for a man to preserve that spirit which is within him, from all manner of contumelies and injuries, and above all pains or pleasures; never to do anything either rashly, or feignedly, or hypocritically: wholly to depend from himself and his own proper actions: all things that happen unto him to embrace contentedly, as coming from Him from whom he himself also came; and above all things, with all meekness and a calm cheerfulness, to expect death, as being nothing else but the resolution of those elements, of which every creature is composed. And if the elements themselves suffer nothing by this their perpetual conversion of one into another, that dissolution, and alteration, which is so common unto all, why should it be feared by any? Is not this according to nature? But nothing that is according to nature can be evil.