Marcus Aurelius

For if even the perception of doing wrong shall depart, what reason is there for living any longer?

The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now moulds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else; and each of these things subsists for a…

It is peculiar to man to love even those who do wrong.

Near is thy forgetfulness of all things; and near the forgetfulness of thee by all.

One thing only troubles me, lest I should do something which the constitution of man does not allow, or in the way which it does not allow, or what it does not allow now.

How many a Chrysippus, how many a Socrates, how many an Epictetus has time already swallowed up!

Through the universal substance as through a furious torrent all bodies are carried, being by their nature united with and co-operating with the whole, as the parts of our body with one another.

The leading principle in itself wants nothing, unless it makes a want for itself; and therefore it is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not disturb and impede itself.

But the soul itself, that which is subject to fear, to pain, which has completely the power of forming an opinion about these things, will suffer nothing, for it will never deviate+ into such a judgment.

The ruling faculty does not disturb itself; I mean, does not frighten itself or cause itself pain.+ But if any one else can frighten or pain it, let him do so.

Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple, were always saying this.

But I, unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am not injured.

Just as it is with the members in those bodies which are united in one, so it is with rational beings which exist separate, for they have been constituted for one co-operation.

All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing.

Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.

Be not ashamed to be helped; for it is thy business to do thy duty like a soldier in the assault on a town.

How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long been dead.

For what-soever either by myself or with another I can do, ought to be directed to this only, to that which is useful and well suited to society.

In discourse thou must attend to what is said, and in every movement thou must observe what is doing.

It is thy duty then in the midst of such things to show good humor and not a proud air; to understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

Look at things again as thou didst use to look at them; for in this consists the recovery of thy life.

The things which are external to my mind have no relation at all to my mind.--Let this be the state of thy affects, and thou standest erect.

I can have that opinion about anything which I ought to have.

There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.

And on the occasion of everything which happens keep this in mind, that it is that which thou hast often seen.