Marcus Aurelius: “And indeed he who pursues pleasure as good, and avoids pain as evil, is guilty of impiety.”

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.

As thou intendest to live when them art gone out, ... so it is in thy power to live here.

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.

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