Simple Stoic Advice
Regulate every act
Regulate every act
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Entry 2.11:
Quote
“Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.”
Advice
One of the hardest aspects to accept about human nature is the fact that we will all one day die. And unfortunately for us, we do not know when that day will come. Many of us live our lives recklessly in youth, only to later discover the fragility of life.
Ernest Becker, author of The Denial of Death, sums this up writing:
“The unconscious does not know death or time : in man’s physiochemical , inner organic recesses he feels immortal.”
The Stoics did not believe in denying this aspect of human nature. Unlike other animals, we have conscious awareness of our own mortality. Rather than ignore this, the way many of us do as it is too painful to think about, the Stoics stared it right in the face.
Marcus Aurelius wrote elsewhere in Meditations:
“Death is only a thing of terror for those unable to live in the present. Pass on your way, then, with a smiling face, under the smile of him who bids you go.”
Due to the fact that we can leave life at any moment, Marcus advises we should live our lives as if it were our last action. Each action we take should be treated as though it were our last.
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