Marcus Aurelius: “Neither must we value the clapping of tongues; for the praise which comes from the many is a clapping of tongues.”

How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man, for it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal!

Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as thy nature leads thee, and to endure that which the common nature brings.

But everything else, whether it is in the power of thy will or not, is only lifeless ashes and smoke.

And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou creepest!