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Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
Marcus Aurelius
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Live fully and ethically, acknowledging the inevitability of death.

This quote by Marcus Aurelius emphasizes the importance of living a good life in the present moment, recognizing that life is fleeting and the certainty of death should inspire us to act with virtue. It serves as a reminder to not take time for granted and to focus on moral actions while we still have the opportunity.

Themes

LifeDeathVirtuePresentLiving

In practice

Example use cases

Use this quote in a speech about making the most of life.

More from Marcus Aurelius

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.
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You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
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Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.
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You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves.
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A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.
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A person's life is dyed with the color of his imagination.
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