Marcus Aurelius: “The periodic movements of the universe are the same, up and down from age to age.”

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!

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

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

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.