Meditations, Book 10, Section 8

Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

So leave all that behind. Set sail from the troubles of your old life. Carry yourself to these few principles. If you can stay with them and practice them faithfully, remain there as happy as someone who has reached paradise — what Hesiod and Plato called the Islands of the Blessed, what others call the Elysian Fields. And whenever you find yourself slipping back, when you cannot master the difficulties and temptations of your current situation, retreat to some private place where you can do better. If that does not work, abandon life itself rather than abandon these principles. But do it calmly, not in passion — in a simple, willing, modest way. Let this be the one praiseworthy act of your whole life, that you departed this way. Or let this be the main work of your whole life — that you were ready to depart this way.

Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Away therefore, ship thyself; and from the troubles and distractions of thy former life convey thyself as it were unto these few names; and if thou canst abide in them, or be constant in the practice and possession of them, continue there as glad and joyful as one that were translated unto some such place of bliss and happiness as that which by Hesiod and Plato is called the Islands of the Blessed, by others called the Elysian Fields. And whensoever thou findest thyself; that thou art in danger of a relapse, and that thou art not able to master and overcome those difficulties and temptations that present themselves in thy present station: get thee into any private corner, where thou mayst be better able. Or if that will not serve forsake even thy life rather. But so that it be not in passion but in a plain voluntary modest way: this being the only commendable action of thy whole life that thus thou art departed, or this having been the main work and business of thy whole life, that thou mightest thus depart.