Meditations 11.34.1
Marcus Aurelius, recalling Epictetus on kissing a child
Καταφιλοῦντα τὸ παιδίον δεῖ, ἔλεγεν ὁ Ἐπίκτητος, ἔνδον ἐπιφθέγγεσθαι· αὔριον ἴσως ἀποθανῇ.—δύσφημα ταῦτα.—οὐδὲν δύσφημον, ἔφη, φυσικοῦ τινος ἔργου σημαντικόν· ἢ καὶ τὸ τοὺς στάχυας θερισθῆναι δύσφημον.
When kissing the little child, Epictetus used to say, one should whisper inwardly: perhaps tomorrow you will die. “These are words of ill omen.” “Nothing that signifies a work of nature is ill-omened,” he said, “unless the reaping of the ears of grain is ill-omened too.”