Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no days, no hours or minutes. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

    Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

    Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.

    So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will all expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

    It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived.

    It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Your gender, skin color, ethnicity will be irrelevant.

    So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

    What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.

    What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

    What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

    What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage and sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

    What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

    What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

    What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.

    What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

    Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.

    It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

    Choose to live a life that matters.

    人終有一死,不管是否做好了準備。不再有日出、白天、黑夜,沒有小時、分鐘。你生前所積累的,不管是否被你珍視或是遺忘,都會被另一個人所繼承。

    你的財富、聲名、世俗權力都淪為無關緊要。不管你擁有什么,不管世界還欠你什么,都沒有意義了。

    你的不滿、怨恨、沮喪和嫉妒都將最終消失。

    還有你的希望、抱負、計劃、要做的事都將過期。曾經顯得那么重要的勝負也黯淡了。

    你的來歷,你的生活方式也都沒有意義了。

    你是否美貌、是否聰慧,沒有意義了;你的性別、膚色、種族也都沒有關系了。

    那么什么才是有意義的呢?我們生命的價值又怎么衡量呢?

    有意義的不是你買的、建的、得到的,有意義的是你給予的。

    有意義的不是你的成就,有意義的是你的影響。

    有意義的不是你學到,有意義的是你教授的。

    有意義的是你的每次包含著正直、同情、勇敢、犧牲,使人富足、使人有力、鼓勵了他人以你為榜樣的行動。

    有意義的不是你的能力,有意義的是你的品性。

    有意義的不是你為多少人所知,有意義的是多少人會在你的離去時感受到永遠的損失。

    有意義的不是你的記憶,有意義的是愛你的人對你的記憶。

    有意義的是你會被記掛的時間、記掛你的人、你被記掛的事跡。

    有意義的生命不是意外獲得的。

    那與環境無關而取決于你的選擇。

    選擇有意義地活著吧。