He who loves fame considers another man's activity to be his own good; and he who loves pleasure, his own sensations; but he who has understanding considers his own acts to be his own good.
In his personal writings, Marcus Aurelius distinguishes between external sources of good, like fame or pleasure, and the internal good derived from one's own actions.
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How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man, for it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal!
But it is inconsistent with honoring reason and God to be troubled because by death a man will be deprived of the other things.
But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which is of the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion is not interrupted.
The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all thy soul to do justice and to say the truth.
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