what is chief of all, he will live without either pursuing or flying from
[death]; but whether for a longer or a shorter time he shall have the
soul enclosed in the body, he cares not at all: for even if he must
depart immediately, he will go as readily as if he were going to do
anything else which can be done with decency and order; taking care of
this only all through life, that his thoughts turn not away from anything
which belongs to an intelligent animal and a member of a civil community.

8. In the mind of one who is chastened and purified thou wilt find no
corrupt matter, nor impurity, nor any sore skinned over. Nor is his life
incomplete when fate overtakes him, as one may say of an actor who leaves
the stage before ending and finishing the play. Besides, there is in him
nothing servile, nor affected, nor too closely bound [to other things],
nor yet detached [from other things], nothing worthy of blame, nothing
which seeks a hiding-place.

9. Reverence the faculty which produces opinion. On this faculty it
entirely depends whether there shall exist in thy ruling part any opinion
inconsistent with nature and the constitution of the rational animal. And
this faculty promises freedom from hasty judgment, and friendship towards
men, and obedience to the gods.

10. Throwing away then all things, hold to these only which are few; and
besides, bear in mind that every man lives only this present time, which
is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past
or it is uncertain. Short then is the time which every man lives, and
small the nook of the earth where he lives; and short too the longest
posthumous fame, and even this only continued by a succession of poor
human beings, who will very soon die, and who know not even themselves,
much less him who died long ago.