From Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations":
“Neither that which is future, nor that which is past can hurt you; but that only which is present (and that also is much lessened, if thou dost lightly circumscribe it), and then check your mind if for so little a while (a mere instant), it cannot hold out with patience.”
Indeed, how much angst is caused by filling the present with thoughts of the past and the future? There is such a great temptation to replay things that happened in my mind or to predict what will happen next. But real happiness and peace are the fruits of living fully in the present moment, convinced, as Aurelius says, that the past and future can do me no harm.
“Neither that which is future, nor that which is past can hurt you; but that only which is present (and that also is much lessened, if thou dost lightly circumscribe it), and then check your mind if for so little a while (a mere instant), it cannot hold out with patience.”
Indeed, how much angst is caused by filling the present with thoughts of the past and the future? There is such a great temptation to replay things that happened in my mind or to predict what will happen next. But real happiness and peace are the fruits of living fully in the present moment, convinced, as Aurelius says, that the past and future can do me no harm.
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