Marcus Aurelius: “For every judgment and movement and desire and aversion is within, and no evil ascends so high.”

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.

There was in him nothing harsh, nor implacable, nor violent, nor, as one may say, anything carried to the sweating point; but he examined all things severally, as if he had abundance of time, and without confusion, in an orderly way…

But if there is a providence which allows itself to be propitiated, make thyself worthy of the help of the divinity.

Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks.