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Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.

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
Imposed
Necessity
Rational
Follow
Simply
Animal
Given
Happens
Voluntarily

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The main thing we were made for is to work with others.
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We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one's back is counterproductive.
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Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.
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Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.
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If the gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for it.
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You are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.
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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love ... then make that day count!
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You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves.
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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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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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Nature insists on whatever benefits the whole.
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To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
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The inner master, when confronted with an obstacle, uses it as fuel, like a fire which consumes things that are thrown into it. A small lamp would be snuffed out, but a big fire will engulf what is thrown at it and burn hotter it consumes the obstacle and uses it to reach a higher level.
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Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.
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What does not benefit the hive is no benefit to the bee.
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All those [events in history] were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.
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... Allow yourself a space of quiet, wherein you can add to your knowledge of the Good and learn to curb your restlessness. Guard also against another kind of error: the folly of those who weary their days in much business, but lack any aim on which their whole effort, nay, their whole thought, is focused.
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If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.
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How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
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