>'But cast away the thirst after books, that thou mayest not die murmuring, but cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful to the gods'

>its at the end of the third paragraph of his meditations. Why do you suppose he says this,

I think this will be similar to what Pascal mentions at the beginning of his *Pensees*; where he contrasts ignorance and idle curiosity which pursues knowledge to no end.


>and does he want us to thirst to read his book?

Why are you *supposing* this? Shakespeare wrote in order to be heard and for posterity (it's there in his sonnets) - but Marcus was not writing for posterity (do you have a quote in the meditations to bear out this?) ; he is writing in the way that Foucault mentions in his essay *On the technology of souls* where he addresses how writing was considered a technique in Stoicism/Christianity in order to still the passions; and in order to understand himself.