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Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself.

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
Neither
Learned
Wilt
Reading
Shalt
Others
Thyself
Able
Obey
Firsts
Lays
First
Thou
Writing
Rules

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I am an old man and have had many worries, but most have never come to pass.
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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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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.
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Hast thou reason? I have. Why then dost not thou use it? For if this does its own work, what else dost thou wish?
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Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee?
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It will suffice thee to remember as concerning pain ... that the mind may, by stopping all manner of commerce and sympathy with the body, still retain its own tranquility.
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Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What's closer to nature's heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? Can any vital process take place without something being changed? Can't you see? It's just the same with you - and just as vital to nature.
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Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.
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It is a shame for the soul to be first to give way in this life, when thy body does not give way.
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Take it that you have died today, and your life's story is ended and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.
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Infinity is a fathomless gulf, into which all things vanish.
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The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
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Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their mind.
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How very near us stand the two vast gulfs of time, the past and the future, in which all things disappear.
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Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self respect, to hate any person, to curse, to act the hypocrite.
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Purge your mind of all aimless and idle thoughts, especially those that pry into the affairs of others or wish them ill.
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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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Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it--turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself, so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.
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Remember: Matter: how tiny your share of it. Time: how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate: how small a role you play in it.
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