《沉思录·卷二·写于格拉努阿河畔》第17条
Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion. What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing, and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon within a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of another man's doing or not doing anything; and besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded. But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature. This in Carnuntum.
注释摘要
这是卷二结尾处分量极重的一段。奥勒留在前面逐层分析过清晨预演、身体的构成、时间的紧迫之后，突然用一连串简短到近乎冷酷的判断句，把人的整个存在压缩成几样微不足道的东西。他说人的生命时间只是一个点，意思不是寿命短，而是再长的寿数在宇宙时间的无限延展面前也只是一个没有厚度的当下。接着他说实体，也就是我们以为实实在在的肉身和外界事物，其实都处在流变之中，赫拉克利特…