Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

"You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say."

"The best revenge is not to be like your enemy."

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

"Our life is what our thoughts make it."

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

"Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one."

"Our life is what our thoughts make it."

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."

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

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."

"Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune,"but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."

"Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life."

"If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance."

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

"The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts."

"All things fade and quickly turn to myth."

"Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too."

"We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first."

"striid andWthdraw into yourself. Our master-reason asks no more than to act justly, and thereby to achieve calm."

"When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you."