Marcus Aurelius: Let thy thoughts ever run upon them,…

Think of the people who once seemed to dominate the world: the executive everyone feared, the rival who consumed someone's thoughts, the celebrity whose every move drew attention, the scandal that felt inescapable. Time has quietly carried most of them away. Their victories, grudges, humiliations, and triumphs became stories, then footnotes, then nothing. This perspective is not meant to make life meaningless. It is meant to make our present drama less tyrannical. The argument you are replaying may not deserve another hour of your life. The status you are desperate to gain may not be worth compromising yourself for. Remembering how quickly everything passes helps us choose with more sanity. Today, when anger or ambition feels enormous, zoom out. Ask whether this will matter to anyone in ten years, including you. Then act in a way that will.