Marcus Aurelius

Dig deep within yourself, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging.

The mind that is free from passions is a fortress, for there is no stronger place for a man to retreat to and remain unconquerable.

Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and the rememberer and the remembered.

That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bee.

Adapt yourself to the environment in which your lot has been cast, and show true love to the fellow-beings with whom destiny has surrounded you.

The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose the same thing.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in that it stands ready for what comes and is not thrown by the unforeseen.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

The only way to live is to be prepared to die.

If someone is able to show me that I am saying or doing something wrong, I will change. I seek the truth, which has never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature's delight.

A man should be upright, not kept upright.

Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.

The mind is a ruler, and it has the power to make you happy or unhappy.

To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.

The true man is one who is not afraid to die, but is afraid to live a life that is not worth living.

What we do now echoes in eternity.

The only way to be happy is to be free from the desire for things that are not in your control.