6 Dec 2008
Ancient Blog
The Meditations from Marcus Aurelius read a bit like a blog, each paragraph is like an independent post. Although the text of this “ancient blog” is nearly 2000 years old, it is still worth reading. Will someone read the texts from our blogs and books in 2000 years? Marcus Aurelius speaks frequently about death and the brevity of life (the text can be found here and here).
“Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.” (IV. 17)
“Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art.” (V. 24)
“Soon you’ll be ashes or bones. A mere name at most–and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, trivial.” (V. 33)