Marcus Aurelius: “The reason which governs knows what its own disposition is, and what it does, and on what material it works.”

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

It is the same whether we examine these things for a hundred years or three.

A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.

Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not allowed; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries.