Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Marcus Aurelius: Either thou dost Continue in this kind…
Either thou dost Continue in this kind of life and that is it, which so long thou hast been used unto and therefore tolerable: or thou doest retire, or leave the world, and that of thine own accord, and then thou hast thy mind: or thy life is cut off; and then mayst thou rejoice that thou hast ended thy charge. One of these must needs be. Be therefore of good comfort.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Meditations. The reading beside it is ours.
Much of our fear comes from pretending there is a fourth option: that we can remain exactly where we are forever, without loss, change, or an ending. Marcus clears away the fantasy. You will continue in the life you have, change it when you can, or eventually leave it. In each case, there is something to do with dignity. If you stay, meet your current duties without self-pity. If you can make a responsible change, make it deliberately rather than endlessly fantasizing about escape. If an ending comes beyond your control, it does not erase the good you have done. This is not an argument against seeking help when life feels unbearable; support and safety matter. It is an argument against wasting today in terror of life’s basic conditions. Today, focus on the form of courage your actual situation permits.
Related passages
- Marcus Aurelius All that I consist of, is either form or matter. No corruption can reduce either of these unto nothing: for neither…
- Marcus Aurelius As a part hitherto thou hast had a particular subsistence: and now shalt thou vanish away into the common substance of…
- Marcus Aurelius As generation is, so also death, a secret of nature's wisdom: a mixture of elements, resolved into the same elements…