Marcus Aurelius: “Short is the little which remains to thee of life.”

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

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.

For every judgment and movement and desire and aversion is within, and no evil ascends so high.

And the things which conduce in any way to the commodity of life, and of which fortune gives an abundant supply, he used without arrogance and without excusing himself; so that when he had them, he enjoyed them without affectation, and…