Marcus Aurelius

• Say nothing more to thyself than what the first appearances report.

• Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

• Neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind if it is unable to hold out against even this.

• Look down from above on the countless herds of men and their countless solemnities, and the infinitely varied voyagings in storms and calms, and the differences among those who are born, who live together, and die.

• In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present,—I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?

• Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more suitable?

• Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it.

• Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.

• Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.

• He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.

• From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper.

• Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.

• The termination of life for every man is no evil… since it is seasonable.

• Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

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