《沉思录·卷二·写于格拉努阿河畔》第11条
Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of providence? But in truth they do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evils. And as to the rest, if there was anything evil, they would have provided for this also, that it should be altogether in a man's power not to fall into it. Now that which does not make a man worse, how can it make a man's life worse? But neither through ignorance, nor--having the knowledge but not the power to guard against or correct these things, is it possible that the nature of the universe has overlooked them; nor is it possible that it has made so great a mistake, either through want of power or want of skill, that good and evil should happen indiscriminately to the good and the bad. But death certainly, and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure,--all these things equally happen to good men and bad, being things which make us neither better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good nor evil.
注释摘要
这段文字是典型的斯多葛式死亡练习与神义论的交织。奥勒留从一开始就设定了一个极端的心理前提：你随时可能死。这不是忧郁的感叹，而是行动原则——正因每一刻都可能是最后一刻，每一刻的念头和行为才必须经得起检验。他立刻转向更棘手的部分：死亡本身是否可怕。他给出两条并行论证，一条假设有神，一条假设无神。如果有神，神是善的，不会把人推入真正的恶中；所以死不是恶。如果没有…