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The constant recollection of death is the test of human conduct.

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
Death
Human
Impermanence
Humans
Recollection
Conduct
Test
Tests
Constant
Dying

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A man should be upright, not kept upright.
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Everything is born from change. ...there is nothing nature loves more that to alter what exists and make new things like it. All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the one that make plants and children? Go deeper.
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You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
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No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess? ... It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.
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Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
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Look at everything that exists, and observe that it is already in dissolution and in change, and as it were putrefaction or dispersion, or that everything is so constituted by nature as to die.
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Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible life in a palace is possible therefore even in a palace a right life is possible.
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When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one's energy, that one's modesty, another's generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we're practically showered with them. It's good to keep this in mind.
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Yet living and dying, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, and so forth are equally the lot of good men and bad. Things like these neither elevate nor degrade and therefore they are no more good than they are evil.
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Think of the universal substance, of which thou has a very small portion and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art
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Thou mayest foresee... the things which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of things now: accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years.
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In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself.
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To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
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As far as you can, get into the habit of asking yourself in relation to any action taken by another: What is his point of reference here? But begin with yourself: examine yourself first.
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A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.
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Put an end once and for all to this discussion of what a good person should be, and be one.
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Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
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Let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.
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Why should any of these things that happen externally distract thee? Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing: cease roving to and fro.
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One universe made up all that is and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth.
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