More Marcus Aurelius

Everywhere and all the time it is up to you to honour god in contentment with your present circumstance, to treat the men who are your present company with justice, and to lavish thought on every present impression in your mind, so that nothing slips in past your understanding.

The gods, who are free from death, do not resent their need thoughout all the length of eternity to tolerate in such numbers such worthless creatures as men: what is more, they even care for them in all sorts of ways. And do you, with the merest time before you own exit, refuse to make the effort--and that when you are one of the worthless creatures yourself?