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la salvación de la vida consiste en ver qué es cada cosa a través del conjunto, cuál es su materia, cuál es su causa; [...] ¿Qué queda sino disfrutar de una vida que suma un bien sobre otro...
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"Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say."

This quote is from book IV out of XII, when Meditations still reads as a book your great-great-great-ancient-granddad wrote to pass on his deep and sincere knowledge. The further into Marcus Aerelius' writing you go, the more he states that all is deducible to either God or Nature and one should not act against either. To fear death, disease, stupidity - all is useless and should therefore be avoided. What starts of sounding as good and wise advice, slowly turns into a rant from a dry and humorless old git. I give you: one of the greatest works of Stoicism!

So passionate readers beware, but otherwise, 'Meditations' is a good philosophical read: not extremely difficult in words nor lengthy. The translation by George Long is a little out of date, but still very readable.

Some other lovely words from the imperial sophist:

'Wipe out imagination: check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power.'

'All things are the same, familiar in experience, and ephemeral in time, and worthless in the matter. Everything now is just as it was in the time of those whom we have buried.'

And my personal favorite:

'Everything which happens either happens in such wise as thou art formed by nature to bear it, or as thou art not formed by nature to bear it. If, then, it happens to thee in such way as thou art formed by nature to bear it, do not complain, but bear it as thou art formed by nature to bear it.'