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Memento Mori – (Latin: remember you will die) The real meaning of this phrase is to reflect on your mortality. This philosophy goes back to Socrates, who said that the proper practice of philosophy is “about nothing else but dying and being dead.”

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: 26 April 121AD – 17 March 180AD was a Roman emperor from 161AD to 180AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors, and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD.) wrote in his journals that “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” That was a personal reminder to continue living a life of virtue NOW, and not wait. ~ Wikipedia

The French painter Philippe de Champaigne expressed a similar sentiment in his painting Still Life with a Skull, which showed the three essentials of existence — the tulip (life), the skull (death), and the hourglass (time). The original painting is part of a genre referred to as Vanitas, a form of 17th-century artwork featuring symbols of mortality that encourage reflection on the meaning and fleetingness of life. ~ Wikipedia