Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180)

“If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common. If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left undone is common. If this be so, law also is common; if this be so, we are citizens; if this be so, we are partakers in one constitution; if this be so, the Universe is a kind of Commonwealth.” (4.4)

Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180)

“At dawn of day, when you dislike being called, have this thought ready: ‘I am called to man’s labour; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?'” (5.1; both in Farquharson’s translation)

Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180)

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.

Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180)

The best answer to anger is silence.

Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180)

A man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.

Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180)

If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.

Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations