Marcus Aurelius

He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing.

He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.

He who does wrong does wrong against himself.

But now thou seest how great is the trouble arising from the discordance of those who live together, so that thou mayst say, Come quick, O death, lest perchance I, too, should forget myself.

For this is the only thing, if there be any, which could draw us the contrary way and attach us to life,--to be permitted to live with those who have the same principles as ourselves.

For it is no way right to be offended with men, but it is thy duty to care for them and to bear with them gently; and yet to remember that thy departure will not be from men who have the same principles as thyself.

This, then, is consistent with the character of a reflecting man--to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of nature.

Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.

For the destruction of the understanding is a pestilence, much more, indeed, than any such corruption and change of this atmosphere which surrounds us.

Hast thou determined to abide with vice, and hast not experience yet induced thee to fly from this pestilence?

It would be a man's happiest lot to depart from mankind without having had any taste of lying and hypocrisy and luxury and pride.

With respect to pain, then, and pleasure, or death and life, or honor and dishonor, which the universal nature employs equally, whoever is not equally affected is manifestly acting impiously.

And he who pursues pleasure will not abstain from injustice, and this is plainly impiety.

And further, he who is afraid of pain will sometimes also be afraid of some of the things which will happen in the world, and even this is impiety.

And indeed he who pursues pleasure as good, and avoids pain as evil, is guilty of impiety.

For since the universal nature has made rational animals for the sake of one another, to help one another according to their deserts, but in no way to injure one another, he who transgresses her will is clearly guilty of impiety towards…

The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.

But if thou shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou feel any harm; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensation, thou wilt be a different kind of living being and thou wilt not cease to live.

He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different kind of sensation.

Such then ought to be the outpouring and diffusion of the understanding, and it should in no way be an effusion, but an extension, and it should make no violent or impetuous collision with the obstacles which are in its way; nor yet fall…

For though we are made especially for the sake of one another, still the ruling power of each of us has its own office, for otherwise my neighbor's wickedness would be my harm, which God has not willed, in order that my unhappiness may not…

To my own free will the free will of my neighbor is just as indifferent as his poor breath and flesh.

No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with the intelligence which embraces all things.

Dost thou wish to be praised by a man who curses himself thrice every hour? wouldst thou wish to please a man who does not please himself?

And he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is.