12. How all things quickly vanish, our bodies themselves lost in the physical world, the memories of them lost in time; the nature of all ob...

You may leave this life at any moment: have this possibility in your mind in all that you do or say or think. Now departure from the world...

In his comparative ranking of sins, applying philosophy to the common man's distinctions, Theophrastus says that offences of lust are gr...

7. Do externals tend to distract you? Then give yourself the space to learn some further good lesson, and stop your wandering. That done, yo...

4. Remember how long you have been putting this off, how many times you have been given a period of grace by the gods and not used it. It i...

The works of the gods are full of providence. The works of Fortune are not independent of Nature or the spinning and weaving together of the...

see Meditations 12.19 Whatever it is, this being of mine is made up of flesh, breath, and directing mind. Now the flesh you should disdain -...

Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I shall meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, aggressive, treacherous, malicious, unso...

Book 1 in Meditations largely focused on Marcus reflecting on the people in his life.  With Book 2 and going forward, Marcus shifts his at...

From the gods: to have had good grandparents, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good family, relatives, and friends - almost every...

From my [adoptive] father: gentleness, and an immovable adherence to decisions made after full consideration. In other words, be good natur...

15. From Maximus: self-mastery, immune to any passing whim; good cheer in all circumstances, including illness; a nice balance of character,...

14. From Severus: love of family, love of truth, love of justice; to have come by his help to understand Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dio, Brut...

13. From Catulus: not to spurn a friend's criticism, even if it may be an unreasonable complaint, but to try to restore his usual feelin...

12. From Alexander the Platonist: rarely, and never without essential cause, to say or write to anyone that 'I am too busy'; nor to ...

11. From Fronto: to understand the effect of suspicion, caprice, and hypocrisy in the exercise of absolute rule; and that for the most part ...

10. From Alexander the grammarian: not to leap on mistakes, or captiously interrupt when anyone makes an error of vocabulary, syntax, or pro...

9. From Sextus: a kindly disposition, and the pattern of a household governed by the paterfamilias; the concept of life lived according to n...

8. From Apollonius: moral freedom, the certainty to ignore the dice of fortune, and have no other perspective, even for a moment, than that ...

7. From Rusticus: to grasp the idea of wanting correction and treatment for my character; not to be diverted into a taste for rhetoric, so n...