Blog — Quotes
2 quotes by Marcus Aurelius on detachment + death
Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.
Whatever this is that I am, it is flesh and a little spirit and an intelligence. Throw away your books; stop letting yourself be distracted. That is not allowed. Instead, as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. A mess of blood, pieces of bone, a woven tangle of nerves, veins, arteries. Consider what the spirit is: air, and never the same air, but vomited out and gulped in again every instant. Finally, the intelligence. Think of it this way: You are an old man. Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.
Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.
Added in 2026
Along the same lines
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- Detachedan essay
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- Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen…Epictetus
- It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.Seneca
- The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them.…Marcus Aurelius
Added in 2026
Whatever this is that I am, it is flesh and a little spirit and an intelligence. Throw away your books; stop letting yourself be distracted. That is not allowed. Instead, as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. A mess of blood, pieces of bone, a woven tangle of nerves, veins, arteries. Consider what the spirit is: air, and never the same air, but vomited out and gulped in again every instant. Finally, the intelligence. Think of it this way: You are an old man. Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.
Added in 2026
Appears in
Along the same lines
- Deathan essay
- Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.Marcus Aurelius
- Detachedan essay
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts t…William Arthur Ward
- Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying…Marcus Aurelius
- Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your me…Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
- The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with you…Heraclitus
Added in 2026