The end of 'Smokin' Aces' is a great scene- The total emotional roundup for the whole movie pushed into a little bleary eyed box. As Ron Burgandy would say "I'm in a glass case of emotion!"
So many ways to not do what is necessary, A person could spend their whole life skirting a task. How many people since time began have been nothing more than a beating heart and a brief whirl of atoms?
"Clear from your mind the many useless things which disturb you, for they lie entirely in your opinion; and you will then gain for yourself ample space by comprehending the whole universe in your mind, and by contemplating the eternity of time, and observing the rapid change of each thing, how short is the time from its birth to its dissolution, and the illimitable time before its birth as well as the equally boundless time after its dissolution.
All that you see will quickly perish, and those who have been spectators of its dissolution will very soon perish too. And he who dies at the extremest old age will be brought into the same condition with him who died prematurely.
What are the ruling principles of these men, and about what kind of things are they busy, and for what kind of reasons do they love and honor? Imagine that you see thier poor souls laid bare. When they think that they do harm by their blame or good by their praise, what an idea!
Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from eternity have been done in like form, and will be such through endless time. When then do you say? That all things have been and all things always will be bad, and that no power has ever been found among all the gods to set them right, but the world has been condemned to be bound in never-ceasing evil?
Decay is the material substance of all things- water, dust, bones filth. What is marble but the callosities of the earth? Gold and silver are but sediments; garments, only bits of hair; purple dye, shellfish blood; and everything else is of the same kind. And even the breath is a thing of the same kind, change from this to that.
Enough of this complaining and groaning and apelike chatter. Why are you disturbed? What is there new in this? what unsettles you? Is it the form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? Look at it. Besides these, there is nothing. Towards the gods, then, now at last become simpler and better. It is the same whether we look at these things for a hundred years or three. " -- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
So many ways to not do what is necessary, A person could spend their whole life skirting a task. How many people since time began have been nothing more than a beating heart and a brief whirl of atoms?
"Clear from your mind the many useless things which disturb you, for they lie entirely in your opinion; and you will then gain for yourself ample space by comprehending the whole universe in your mind, and by contemplating the eternity of time, and observing the rapid change of each thing, how short is the time from its birth to its dissolution, and the illimitable time before its birth as well as the equally boundless time after its dissolution.
All that you see will quickly perish, and those who have been spectators of its dissolution will very soon perish too. And he who dies at the extremest old age will be brought into the same condition with him who died prematurely.
What are the ruling principles of these men, and about what kind of things are they busy, and for what kind of reasons do they love and honor? Imagine that you see thier poor souls laid bare. When they think that they do harm by their blame or good by their praise, what an idea!
Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from eternity have been done in like form, and will be such through endless time. When then do you say? That all things have been and all things always will be bad, and that no power has ever been found among all the gods to set them right, but the world has been condemned to be bound in never-ceasing evil?
Decay is the material substance of all things- water, dust, bones filth. What is marble but the callosities of the earth? Gold and silver are but sediments; garments, only bits of hair; purple dye, shellfish blood; and everything else is of the same kind. And even the breath is a thing of the same kind, change from this to that.
Enough of this complaining and groaning and apelike chatter. Why are you disturbed? What is there new in this? what unsettles you? Is it the form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? Look at it. Besides these, there is nothing. Towards the gods, then, now at last become simpler and better. It is the same whether we look at these things for a hundred years or three. " -- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations