Marcus Aurelius: “Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.”

Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as thy nature leads thee, and to endure that which the common nature brings.

But everything else, whether it is in the power of thy will or not, is only lifeless ashes and smoke.

What remains, except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between?

And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou creepest!