Quotes About Mortality

Dost thou grieve that thou dost weigh but so many pounds, and not three hundred rather? Just as much reason hast thou to grieve that thou must live but so many years, and not longer. For as for bulk and substance thou dost content thyself with that proportion of it that is allotted unto thee, so shouldst thou for time.

The person who lives shortest owns the exact same amount of life as the one who lives longest. For the present is all we have and all we can lose. When we die, we don't "lose" the past or future—we never owned them.

How many of them who came into the world at the same time when I did, are already gone out of it?

To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a speck of semen tomorrow will be a mummy or ashes.

From Plato: the man who has an elevated mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, dost thou suppose it possible for him to think that human life is anything great? It is not possible, he said. Such a man then will think that death also is no evil.

consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man's life is only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead.

The time of a man's life is as a point; the substance of it ever flowing, the sense obscure; and the whole composition of the body tending to corruption.

Be not deceived; for thou shalt never live to read thy moral commentaries, nor the acts of the famous Romans and Grecians; nor those excerpta from several books; all which thou hadst provided and laid up for thyself against thine old age. Hasten therefore to an end, and giving over all vain hopes, help thyself in time if thou carest for thyself, as thou oughtest to do.

49. It doesn't bother you that you weigh only x or y pounds and not three hundred. Why should it bother you that you have only x or y years to live and not more? You accept the limits placed on your body. Accept those placed on your time.

All parts of the world, (all things I mean that are contained within the whole world), must of necessity at some time or other come to corruption. Alteration I should say, to speak truly and properly; but that I may be the better understood, I am content at this time to use that more common word.

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.

Sayest thou unto that rational part, Thou art dead; corruption hath taken hold on thee? Doth it then also void excrements? Doth it like either oxen, or sheep, graze or feed; that it also should be mortal, as well as the body?

what death is, and the fact that, if a man looks at it in itself, and by the abstractive power of reflection resolves into their parts all the things which present themselves to the imagination in it, he will then consider it to be nothing else than an operation of nature;

remember this: in no time at all both you and he will be dead, and shortly after that not even our names will remain.

In sum, remember this, that within a very little while, both thou and he shall both be dead, and after a little while more, not so much as your names and memories shall be remaining.

44. Give yourself a gift: the present moment. People out for posthumous fame forget that the Generations To Come will be the same annoying people they know now. And just as mortal. What does it matter to you if they say x about you, or think y?

Ricorda che tra non molto non sarai più nessuno, da nessuna parte, e non esisteranno più nessuna delle cose che vedi ora e nessuno di coloro che vivono ora. Tutti quanti gli esseri, infatti, per natura devono mutare, trasformarsi e corrompersi, perché altri possano subentrare ad essi.

Each morning, remind yourself that this day may be your last. And when you tuck your children into bed at night, remember that they, too, are mortals who someday will die.

What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands.

The winds blow upon the trees, and their leaves fall upon the ground. Then do the trees begin to bud again, and by the spring-time they put forth new branches. So is the generation of men; some come into the world, and others go out of it.' Of these leaves then thy children are. And they also that applaud thee so gravely, or, that applaud thy speeches, with that their usual acclamation

Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say (I. C. 19).

Propio del hombre es amar incluso a los que tropiezan. Y eso se consigue, en cuanto se te ocurra pensar que son tus familiares, y que pecan por ignorancia y contra su voluntad, y que dentro de poco ambos estaréis muerto y que, ante todo, no te dañó puesto que no hizo a tu guía interior peor de lo que era antes

No actues en la idea de que vas a vivir diez mil años. La necesidad ineludible pende sobre ti. Mientras vives, mientras es posible, se virtuoso.

the term of your time is circumscribed, and that unless you use it to attain calm of mind, time will be gone and you will be gone and the opportunity to use it will not be yours again.