Marcus Aurelius: “Consider the past,--such great changes of political supremacies; thou mayest foresee also the things which will be.”

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

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

Do not then consider life a thing of any value. + For look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is before thee, another boundless space.

In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present,--I am rising to the work of a human being.