我们不仅应当考虑到我们的生命每日每时都在耗费，剩下的部分越来越少，而且应当考虑另一件事情，即如果一个人竟然活得久些，也没有多大把握说理解力还能继续足以使他领悟事物，还能保持那种努力获得有关神和人的知识的思考能力。因为他将在排泄、营养、想象和胃口或别的类似能力衰退之前，就开始坠入老年性昏聩，而那种运用我们自己的能力，满足我们义务标准的能力，清晰区分各种现象的能力，考虑一个人是否应当现在辞世的能力等诸如此类的能力绝对需要一种训练有素的理性，而这种理性整个地已经衰退了。所以我们必须抓紧时间，这不仅是因为我们在一天天地接近死亡，而且因为对事物的关照和理解力将先行消失。

来自《沉思录》

We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain whether  the understanding will still continue sufficient for the comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and imagination and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the measure of our duty, and clearly separating all appearances, and considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else of the kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason,−−all this is already extinguished. We must make haste, then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.