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Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee.

— Marcus Aurelius

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Variants

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly.

More quotes by Marcus Aurelius

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.

A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.

Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Marcus Aurelius (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.