Marcus Aurelius

Don't be ashamed to need help. You have a duty to fulfill just like a soldier on the wall of a fortress. So what if you're injured and can't climb up without a comrade's help?

The longest lives are not necessarily the best.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Because your life is a battle, not a drill.

The only thing that isn't worthless is to live this life out as yourself, and to make truth and justice the end of every action. That's the only way to make your life not worthless.

Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

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.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in that it involves standing ready and unshakeable to meet sudden and unexpected attacks.

The mind that is free from passions is a citadel, for man has no stronger fortress into which he can retreat and remain safe forever.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is content has enough.

The universe is a stream of things, a river of events, and a torrent of change.

All things are interwoven, and the bond is sacred, and there is scarcely anything alien to another; for they have been arranged together, and together they make the same ordered whole.

What is good for the bee is good for the hive.

Every moment of your life is a gift, and you should treat it as such.

The longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.

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 comes from persisting in error and ignorance.

Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not embrace in your imagination all the various troubles which are likely to befall you, but on each occasion ask yourself: 'What is there in this that is intolerable and beyond endurance?'

Every moment of your life is a gift. Accept it with gratitude.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.