9781945186240

32. The fraction of infinity, of that vast abyss of time, allotted to each of
us. Absorbed in an instant into eternity.
The fraction of all substance, and all spirit.
The fraction of the whole earth you crawl about on.
Keep all that in mind, and don’t treat anything as important except
doing what your nature demands, and accepting what Nature sends you.
33. How the mind conducts itself. It all depends on that. All the rest is
within its power, or beyond its control—corpses and smoke.
34. An incentive to treat death as unimportant: even people whose only
morality is pain and pleasure can manage that much.
35. If you make ripeness alone your good . . .
If a few actions more or less, governed by the right logos, are merely a
few more or less . . .
If it makes no difference whether you look at the world for this long or
that long . . .
. . . then death shouldn’t scare you.
36. You’ve lived as a citizen in a great city. Five years or a hundred—
what’s the difference? The laws make no distinction.
And to be sent away from it, not by a tyrant or a dishonest judge, but by
Nature, who first invited you in—why is that so terrible?
Like the impresario ringing down the curtain on an actor:
“But I’ve only gotten through three acts . . . !”
Yes. This will be a drama in three acts, the length fixed by the power
that directed your creation, and now directs your dissolution. Neither was
yours to determine.
So make your exit with grace—the same grace shown to you.