Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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

"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."

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

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

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

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."

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

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart."

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

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

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

"Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?"

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"Our life is what our thoughts make it."

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking."

"No man is happy who does not think himself so."