From Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations":
“And how many there are, who never so much as heard of your name, how many that will soon forget it; how many who but even now did commend you, but who within a very little while perchance will speak ill of you. So that neither fame, nor honour, nor anything else that this world offers, is worth the while.”
This is a little extreme for my taste: "nothing this world offers is worth the while"? I wonder if he wasn't near death when he wrote this. It seems decidedly more pessimistic than the rest of this text. I think there are things in this life which the world offers us which are worth pursuing and having. But I think we have to be on guard not to let those things dominate and rule our lives.
“And how many there are, who never so much as heard of your name, how many that will soon forget it; how many who but even now did commend you, but who within a very little while perchance will speak ill of you. So that neither fame, nor honour, nor anything else that this world offers, is worth the while.”
This is a little extreme for my taste: "nothing this world offers is worth the while"? I wonder if he wasn't near death when he wrote this. It seems decidedly more pessimistic than the rest of this text. I think there are things in this life which the world offers us which are worth pursuing and having. But I think we have to be on guard not to let those things dominate and rule our lives.
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