Marcus Aurelius: “But to allow men to behave so to others, and to expect them not to do thee any wrong, is irrational and tyrannical.”

It is the same whether we examine these things for a hundred years or three.

In the application of thy principles thou must be like the pancratiast, not like the gladiator; for the gladiator lets fall the sword which he uses and is killed; but the other always has his hand, and needs to do nothing else than use it.

Thou must turn to profit the present by the aid of reason and justice.

How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything which happens in life.