Marcus Aurelius: “Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised.”

And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou creepest!

Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as thy nature leads thee, and to endure that which the common nature brings.

But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which is of the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion is not interrupted.

The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all thy soul to do justice and to say the truth.