Marcus Aurelius: “Now the universe is preserved, as by the changes of the elements so by the changes of things compounded of the elements.”

Further, I owe it to the gods that I was not hurried into any offence against any of them, though I had a disposition which, if opportunity had offered, might have led me to do something of this kind; but, through their favor, there never…

From thence all things flow; and there is besides necessity, and that which is for the advantage of the whole universe, of which thou art a part.

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.

He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready to forgive, and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a man who could not be diverted from right, rather than of a man who had been improved.