Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Marcus Aurelius: Thou must comfort thyself in the…
Thou must comfort thyself in the expectation of thy natural dissolution, and in the meantime not grieve at the delay; but rest contented in those two things. First, that nothing shall happen unto thee, which is not according to the nature of the universe.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Meditations. The reading beside it is ours.
Death is part of the arrangement, and its timing is not yours to negotiate. Marcus advises us to make peace with that fact while continuing to live. The point is not to become eager for death or indifferent to safety. It is to stop spending the present in terror of an unavoidable future.
Nothing that happens is outside the basic conditions of a changing universe: bodies age, people die, plans end. Once you accept this, you can care for your health and your loved ones without believing you can make them permanent.
Use mortality as a clarifying tool. If time is limited, what resentment is not worth carrying? What work is worth beginning? What appreciation should not wait for a special occasion? You do not need to solve the mystery of death today. You only need to let its certainty make you more awake to the life in front of you.
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