Marcus Aurelius: “Is it not then strange that thy intelligent part only should be disobedient and discontented with its own place?”

There was in him nothing harsh, nor implacable, nor violent, nor, as one may say, anything carried to the sweating point; but he examined all things severally, as if he had abundance of time, and without confusion, in an orderly way…

But to be strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul, such as he showed in the illness of Maximus.

I observed, too, that no man could ever think that he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man.

Do not then consider life a thing of any value. + For look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is before thee, another boundless space.