Skip to content

Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.

— Marcus Aurelius

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

τὸ χρεὼν ἐπήρτηται· ἕως ζῇς, ἕως ἔξεστιν, ἀγαθὸς γενοῦ. | IV, 17 (trans. George Long)

Variants

Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

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.

All Marcus Aurelius quotes →

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.