Marcus Aurelius: “A cucumber is bitter--Throw it away.--There are briers in the road--Turn aside from them.--This is enough.”

Labor not unwillingly, nor without regard to the common interest, nor without due consideration, nor with distraction; nor let studied ornament set off thy thoughts, and be not either a man of many words, or busy about too many things.

He was also easy in conversation, and he made himself agreeable without any offensive affectation.

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.