Marcus Aurelius

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.

What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'

Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.