"Or is it your reputation that's bothering..." - Quote by Marcus Aurelius

Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region it takes place. The whole earth a point in space - and most of it uninhabited.
Image for the quote by Marcus Aurelius: Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss o...

More by Marcus Aurelius

“There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“Observe and contemplate on the hidden things of life: how a man's seed is but the beginning, it takes others to bring it to fruition. Think how food undergoes such changes to produce health and strength. See the power of these hidden things which, like the wind cannot been seen, but its effects can be.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“Death - a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.”
— Marcus Aurelius

More on Fame

“People think the Beatles know what's going on. We don't. We're just doing it.”
— John Lennon
“Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love.”
— Rabindranath Tagore
“The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.”
— Blaise Pascal

More on Transience

“The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything!”
— Marcus Aurelius
“The longest wave is quickly lost in the sea.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“One had a lovely face,And two or three had charm,But charm and face were in vain.Because the mountain grassCannot keep the formWhere the mountain hare has lain.”
— William Butler Yeats