Marcus Aurelius: “It would be a man's happiest lot to depart from mankind without having had any taste of lying and hypocrisy and luxury…”

Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give.

How quickly all things disappear,--in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them.

From thence all things flow; and there is besides necessity, and that which is for the advantage of the whole universe, of which thou art a part.

For he who yields to pain and he who yields to anger, both are wounded and both submit.