3. Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.
For such as it is to be young and to grow old, and to increase and to reach maturity, and to have teeth and beard and grey hairs, and to beget, and to be pregnant and to bring forth, and all the other natural operations which the seasons of your life bring, such also is dissolution.
This, then, is consistent with the character of a reflecting man, to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of nature.
As you now waitest for the time when the child shall come out of your wife's womb, so be ready for the time when your soul shall fall out of this envelope.
But if you requirest also a vulgar kind of comfort which shall reach your heart, you will be made best reconciled to death by observing the objects from which you are going to be removed, and the morals of those with whom your soul will no longer be mingled.
For it is no way right to be offended with men, but it is your duty to care for them and to bear with them gently; and yet to remember that your departure will be not from men who have the same principles as yourself For this is the only thing, if there be any, which could draw us the contrary way and attach us to life, to be permitted to live with those who have the same principles as ourselves.
But now you see how great is the trouble arising from the discordance of those who live together, so that you may say, Come quick, O death, in case perchance I, too, should forget myself.
Book: Meditations
Subtitle: The classic from Marcus Aurelius.
Author: Marcus Aurelius
Chapter: Book Nine
Chapter Subtitle: He who acts unjustly acts impiously.
Location: Chapter 9, Section 3
Content:
3. Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.
For such as it is to be young and to grow old, and to increase and to reach maturity, and to have teeth and beard and grey hairs, and to beget, and to be pregnant and to bring forth, and all the other natural operations which the seasons of your life bring, such also is dissolution.
This, then, is consistent with the character of a reflecting man, to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of nature.
As you now waitest for the time when the child shall come out of your wife's womb, so be ready for the time when your soul shall fall out of this envelope.
But if you requirest also a vulgar kind of comfort which shall reach your heart, you will be made best reconciled to death by observing the objects from which you are going to be removed, and the morals of those with whom your soul will no longer be mingled.
For it is no way right to be offended with men, but it is your duty to care for them and to bear with them gently; and yet to remember that your departure will be not from men who have the same principles as yourself For this is the only thing, if there be any, which could draw us the contrary way and attach us to life, to be permitted to live with those who have the same principles as ourselves.
But now you see how great is the trouble arising from the discordance of those who live together, so that you may say, Come quick, O death, in case perchance I, too, should forget myself.