How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter)
Quote #10
All things are the same: familiar in experience, transient in time, sordid in substance. Everything now is as it was in the days of those we buried. (9.14)
This is Marcus on a Monday, feeling very badly about human existence. The swiftness and monotony of time leaves the emperor feeling that it's just not worth getting out of bed. Everything that will happen today has happened a million times in the past, and what good did it do our ancestors? They're all dead now, anyway. It's kind of a bad attitude, but Marcus isn't interested in sugarcoating anything. In this way, he hopes to see things for what they truly are and value things properly.