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A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

Marcus Aurelius

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Marcus Aurelius
Philosopher
Politician
Roman Emperor
Writer
The Eternal City
Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Marcus Annius Verus
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Men
Produce
Vulgar
Higher
Aspire
Idea
Produces
Inspirational
Aspiration
Ideas
Lower
Self
Compare
Estimates
Mean
Noble
Compares
Way
Ambition
Aspires

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Spend your brief moment according to nature's law, and serenely greet the journey's end as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing the branch that bare it, and giving thanks to the tree that gave it life.
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Body. Soul. Mind. Sensations: the body. Desires: the soul. Reasoning: the mind.
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For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.
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It doesn't hurt me unless I interpret its happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to.
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I cannot comprehend how any man can want anything but the truth.
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To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
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When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, endeavor to rouse your faculties, and act up to your kind, and consider that you have to do the business of a man and that action is both beneficial and the end of your being.
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As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
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In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.
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All things are changing and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
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Consider frequently the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For things are somehow implicated with one another, and all in a way friendly to one another.
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A good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine.
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It is within our power not to make a judgement about something, and so not disturb our minds for nothing in itself possesses the power to form our judgements.
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It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.
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Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear for where we are able to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.
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The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
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Thou sufferest justly: for thou choosest rather to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day.
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Infinity is a fathomless gulf, into which all things vanish.
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Dig within. There lies the wellspring of good.
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Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason.
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