Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and to that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.
Marcus Aurelius, Book II, 4. Meditations.
27 September, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Hmmmm, you’ve done a PhD, haven’t you?
This was what I needed right now, thanks. Beautifully phrased.
27 September, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Well, yes, as George said, beautifully phrased. Which perhaps is why Marcus Aurelius is far preferable to the equivalent piece of Victorian kitsch:
Lost: one golden hour, studded with sixty diamond minutes. No reward offered, for it is GONE FOR EVER!
27 September, 2009 at 9:08 pm
the middle sentence is a bit… stoic… but the bookends were just the ticket.
the study was often guided by this, and genesis 11:1-9.
27 September, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Guided by babbling? Your thesis was rather better than that!
28 September, 2009 at 5:53 am
heh. academia largely babble.