Marcus Aurelius: “And consider if magnanimity, freedom, simplicity, equanimity, piety, are not more agreeable.”

But everything else, whether it is in the power of thy will or not, is only lifeless ashes and smoke.

There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains, and other things infinite.

There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.

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.