《沉思录·卷十二·此刻即全部》第31条
What dost thou wish--to continue to exist? Well, dost thou wish to have sensation, movement, growth, and then again to cease to grow, to use thy speech, to think? What is there of all these things which seems to thee worth desiring? But if it is easy to set little value on all these things, turn to that which remains, which is to follow reason and God. But it is inconsistent with honoring reason and God to be troubled because by death a man will be deprived of the other things.
注释摘要
奥勒留在这一段里做了一个冷静的拆解：他把人对生命的执念剖开，一层一层地问下去。你想继续存在，这到底意味着什么？是想继续有感觉吗？想继续运动、生长、说话、思考？他逼迫读者面对一个事实：这些功能，单独拿出来审视，其实没有一样是真正值得紧紧抓住不放的。感觉只是肉体对外界的反应，运动与生长是生物共有的机制，说话和思考如果只是服务于虚荣或焦虑，又有什么价值？这个推理…