It is possible to depart from life at this moment. Have this thought in mind whenever you act, speak, or think.

Infinity is a fathomless gulf, into which all things vanish.

But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you choose to retire into yourself.

A man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent self-examinations, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not that which he thinks and says and does.

Run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something: the most famous, the most unfortunate, the most hated, the most whatever: Where is all that now? Smoke, dust, legend...or not even a legend. Think of all the examples. And how trivial the things we want so passionately are.

Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.

...small too even the longest fame thereafter, which is itself subject to a succession of little men who quickly die, and have no knowledge of themselves, let alone of those long dead.