Plain
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Will this complaining, this grumbling, this whining and pretending never end? What is troubling you? Is something new happening to you? What are you so surprised by? The cause, or the thing itself? Look at either one alone. Is either really that important? Besides these, there is nothing else. But your duty to the gods — it is time you fulfill it with more goodness and simplicity.

Meditations, Book 9, Section 35 Book 9 · 46 of 60
Calm Your Mind Knowing Yourself
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Will this querulousness, this murmuring, this complaining and dissembling never be at an end? What then is it, that troubleth thee? Doth any new thing happen unto thee? What doest thou so wonder at? At the cause, or the matter? Behold either by itself, is either of that weight and moment indeed? And besides these, there is not anything. But thy duty towards the Gods also, it is time thou shouldst acquit thyself of it with more goodness and simplicity.

Meditations, Book 9, Section 35 Book 9 · 46 of 60
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

How cheap and rotten every material thing is! Water, dust, and from mixing these — bones and all the disgusting stuff our bodies are made of. So easily infected and corrupted. And those other things people prize so much, like marble — what are they but the seeds of the earth? Gold and silver are just the earth's waste. Your finest clothes are nothing but sheep's hair, dyed with the blood of shellfish. Everything else is like this too. Your life itself is the same — just blood vapor that can easily change into something else ordinary.

Meditations, Book 9, Section 34 Book 9 · 45 of 60
What Matters Most Death & Mortality
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

How base and putrid, every common matter is! Water, dust, and from the mixture of these bones, and all that loathsome stuff that our bodies do consist of: so subject to be infected, and corrupted. And again those other things that are so much prized and admired, as marble stones, what are they, but as it were the kernels of the earth? gold and silver, what are they, but as the more gross faeces of the earth? Thy most royal apparel, for matter, it is but as it were the hair of a silly sheep, and for colour, the very blood of a shell-fish; of this nature are all other things. Thy life itself, is some such thing too; a mere exhalation of blood: and it also, apt to be changed into some other common thing.

Meditations, Book 9, Section 34 Book 9 · 45 of 60
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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