Marcus Aurelius

Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation.  How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.

Were you to live three thousand years, or even thirty thousand, remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment; and furthermore, that he can have no other life except the one he loses...

I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

A man's true delight is to do the things he was made for.

Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.

I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.

Everything--a horse, a vine--is created for some duty...For what task, then, were you yourself created?

A man's true delight is to do the things he was made for.