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Meditations · Book IV · 17Meditations

Book IV · 17

Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

Behave not as though thou hadst ten thousand years to live. Thy doom hangs over thee. While thou livest, while thou mayest, become good.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations IV.17. Translated by George Long (1862). The Stoic Library.