"It doesn't matter how good a life you've led.
There'll still be people standing around the
bed who will welcome the sad event.

Even with the intelligent and good. Won't there
be someone thinking: "Finally! To be through
with that old schoolteacher. Even though he
never said anything, you could always *feel*
him judging you." And that's for a good man.
How many traits do *you* have that
would make a lot of people glad to be rid of you?

Remember that, when the time comes. You'll
be less reluctant to leave if you tell yourself,
"This is the sort of life I'm leaving. Even the
people around me, the ones I spend so much
time fighting for, praying over, caring about-
even they want me gone, in hopes that
it will make their lives easier. How could anyone
stand a longer stay here?"

And yet, don't leave angry with them. Be true to
who you are; caring, sympathetic, kind. And not
as if you were being torn away from life..."

Marcus Aurelius
*Meditations*
a new translation, with an introduction
by Gregory Hays
The Modern Library