"Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back."

Misattributed

Not found in Meditations or any other work of Marcus Aurelius. The line is dialogue written for the character Maximus in the film Gladiator (2000), where it is attributed on-screen to Marcus Aurelius. The nearest genuine passage is the closing line of Meditations (Long's translation, Book 12): 'thou must depart from among men... in kindly spirit towards those who drive thee away.'