The river of Time. Marcus Aurelius 6.15

Life is a river of events, and we must ride its tides. We will not control what lies beyond our power.

Τὰ μὲν σπεύδει γίνεσθαι, τὰ δὲ σπεύδει γεγονέναι, καὶ τοῦ γινομένου δὲ ἤδη τι ἀπέσβη· ῥύσεις καὶ ἀλλοιώσεις ἀνανεοῦσι τὸν κόσμον διηνεκῶς, ὥσπερ τὸν ἄπειρον αἰῶνα ἡ τοῦ χρόνου ἀδιάλειπτος φορὰ νέον ἀεὶ παρέχεται. ἐν δὴ τούτῳ τῷ ποταμῷ, ἐφ’ οὗ στῆναι οὐκ ἔξεστιν, τί ἄν τις τούτων τῶν παραθεόντων ἐκτιμήσειεν; ὥσπερ εἴ τίς τι τῶν παραπετομένων στρουθαρίων φιλεῖν ἄρχοιτο, τὸ δ’ ἤδη ἐξ ὀφθαλμῶν ἀπελήλυθεν. τοιοῦτον δή τι καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ ζωὴ ἑκάστου, οἷον ἡ ἀφ’ αἵματος ἀναθυμίασις καὶ ἡ ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος ἀνάπνευσις· ὁποῖον γάρ ἐστι τὸ ἅπαξ ἑλκύσαι τὸν ἀέρα καὶ ἀποδοῦναι, ὅπερ παρ’ ἕκαστον ποιοῦμεν, τοιοῦτόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ τὴν πᾶσαν ἀναπνευστικὴν δύναμιν, ἣν χθὲς καὶ πρῴην ἀποτεχθεὶς ἐκτήσω, ἀποδοῦναι ἐκεῖ ὅθεν τὸ πρῶτον ἔσπασας.

Some events hasten to begin, and others to be done, and occasionally one will end even as it is just beginning. The ebb and flow of events renews the world continually, even as the uninterrupted passage of time is always expressing the boundless age of eternity in another new moment. In this river, from which it is impossible to remove ourselves, what of all the things that run by would any of us select as being worthy of our worship? It would be like falling in love with one of the little sparrows flitting by: the moment we commit to adore it, it has already escaped from our eyes. Just such a thing is the life of each man: here and gone like a drop of blood, or a breath of air. You are just as incapable of revoking or returning a breath already taken as of reclaiming or restoring the power to breathe that you received at birth, a moment so near that it might as well be yesterday or the day before.