“Death Smiles At Us All. All A Man Can Do Is Smile Back”
Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back. While you may think this quote came from the Roman general Maximus if you watched Gladiator, this quote actually came from Marcus Aurelius. It is about accepting the fact that all of us are going to die one day. No matter how invincible we feel at the moment, one day death will come for us. It may not be pleasant to think about, but accepting that fact will make life easier.
We all know that we will one day die. So what is so special about this quote? This quote is not just about acknowledging that you will die. It tells us that we should not dread the idea of death. That we do not need to scramble for things that will extend our life, in the hopes of somehow becoming immortal.
If death is natural and happens to all of us, what is there to fear? Honestly, not truly living is much worse than dying. This quote means that we should not spend our lives working about death. Instead, we should spend our lives living. No amount of wishing death to not be will make it not so.
Another aspect of this quote is the idea that you must stop trying to push against an inevitability, even if it’s something you do not desire. Death is the most obvious, but this mindset can be applied to many other things. We’d all like life itself to go smoothly and without major challenges or losses. As far as I can tell, no one has been able to escape challenges in their life.
We have to accept the fact that there are things in our life that we will not like. Pushing back against it serves no purpose but to frustrate you. Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back. Replace the word “death” with “challenges” or anything else you want, and the idea stays the same. And I say this as a lesson just as much for myself as anyone reading this. We have no choice. We have to embrace the challenges that come to us. Smile back at them.
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