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Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

XIX. Cast away from thee opinion, and thou art safe.

And what is it that hinders thee from casting of it away?

When thou art grieved at anything, hast thou forgotten that

all things happen according to the nature of the universe;

and that him only it concerns, who is in fault; and moreover,

that what is now done, is that which from ever hath been done

in the world, and will ever be done, and is now done everywhere:

how nearly all men are allied one to another by a kindred

not of blood, nor of seed, but of the same mind. Thou hast

also forgotten that every man's mind partakes of the Deity,

and issueth from thence; and that no man can properly call anything

his own, no not his son, nor his body, nor his life; for that they

all proceod from that One who is the giver of all things:

that all things are but opinion; that no man lives properly,

but that very instant of time which is now present.

And therefore that no man whensoever he dieth can properly

be said to lose any more, than an instant of time.