Plain
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

So what's the situation? You have boarded the ship, you have sailed, you have reached land — now get off. If there's another life waiting, you'll find gods there too. They are everywhere. If all life and feeling just stops, then you'll also stop feeling pain or pleasure. You won't have to serve this worthless body anymore. And it really is worthless when you think about it — your soul is rational and spiritual, but your body is just dirt and blood.

Meditations, Book 3, Section 3 Book 3 · 6 of 28
Death & Mortality Knowing Yourself
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

How then stands the case? Thou hast taken ship, thou hast sailed, thou art come to land, go out, if to another life, there also shalt thou find gods, who are everywhere. If all life and sense shall cease, then shalt thou cease also to be subject to either pains or pleasures; and to serve and tend this vile cottage; so much the viler, by how much that which ministers unto it doth excel; the one being a rational substance, and a spirit, the other nothing but earth and blood.

Meditations, Book 3, Section 3 Book 3 · 6 of 28
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Hippocrates cured many sick people, then got sick himself and died. The Chaldeans and astrologers predicted when others would die, but fate surprised them too. Alexander, Pompeius, and Julius Caesar destroyed many cities and killed thousands of soldiers. But in the end, they all had to give up their own lives. Heraclitus wrote many books about how the world would end in fire. Then he died with his body full of water and covered in filth. Lice killed Democritus. And Socrates was killed by another kind of pest — wicked, godless men.

Meditations, Book 3, Section 3 Book 3 · 5 of 28
Death & Mortality Human Nature
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Hippocrates having cured many sicknesses, fell sick himself and died. The Chaldeans and Astrologians having foretold the deaths of divers, were afterwards themselves surprised by the fates. Alexander and Pompeius, and Caius Cæsar, having destroyed so many towns, and cut off in the field so many thousands both of horse and foot, yet they themselves at last were fain to part with their own lives. Heraclitus having written so many natural tracts concerning the last and general conflagration of the world, died afterwards all filled with water within, and all bedaubed with dirt and dung without. Lice killed Democritus; and Socrates, another sort of vermin, wicked ungodly men.

Meditations, Book 3, Section 3 Book 3 · 5 of 28
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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