marcus Aurelius

“A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.”

“A man should be upright, not be kept upright.”

“A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not always he that has done something.”

“All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.”

“All that is harmony for thee, O Universe, is in harmony with me as well.  Nothing that comes at the right time for thee is too early or too late for me.  Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature.  All things come of thee, have their being in thee, and return to thee.”

“As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldest thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.”

“Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand:  while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.”

“Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.”

“Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.”

“By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.”

“Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”

“Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all?  Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.”

“Every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.”

“For a life that is sound and secure, cultivate a thorough insight into things and discover their essence, matter, and cause; put your whole heart into doing what is just, and speaking what is true; and for the rest, know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.”

“For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his?  So remember these two points:  first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.”

“Forward, as occasion offers.  Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.”

“He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself.  He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.”

“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”

“If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true, speak it not.”

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

“Look beneath the surface; let not the several qualities of thing nor its worth escape thee.”

"Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.”

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.”

“Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference.”

“Never esteem anything as of advantage to thee that shall make thee break thy word or lose thy self-respect.”

“No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.”

“Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.”

“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.”

“One Universe made up of all that is;  and one God in it all, and one principle of Being, and one Law, the Reason, shared by all thinking creatures, and one Truth.”

“Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.”

“Remember that man's life lies all within this present, as 't were but a hair's-breadth of time; as for the rest, the past is gone, the future yet unseen.  Short, therefore, is a man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.”

“Remember this,--that very little is needed to make a happy life.”

“Respect the faculty that forms thy judgments.”

“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

“Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favour; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.”

“Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act of life as though it were thy last.”

“Though thou be destined to live three thousand years and as many myriads besides, yet remember that no man loseth other than that which he liveth, nor liveth other than that which he loseth.”

“What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.”

“Whatever happens at all happens as it should; thou wilt find this true, if thou shouldest watch narrowly.”