Marcus Aurelius: “Accordingly, on every occasion a man should ask himself, Is this one of the unnecessary things?”

One is that things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within.

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

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

He was also easy in conversation, and he made himself agreeable without any offensive affectation.