Throw away the thought of how thou shalt seem to others, and be content if thou shalt live the rest of thy life, however short, as thy nature wills. - Meditations 8.1

If you wish to know what you value, examine what you do in the hours no one is watching. The account is accurate.

Look round at the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going along with them. Such contemplations purge away the filth of life on the ground. - Meditations 7.47

A reasonable soul is at home everywhere, because it carries its peace within and does not leave it behind in any room. - original aphorism

The present moment is the only territory you actually govern. Tend it well, and the past and future will trouble you less. - original aphorism

Discipline is not punishment. It is the architecture of a life you do not need to escape from.

Take care that thou art not made into a Caesar, that thou art not dyed with this dye. Keep thyself simple, good, pure, serious, a friend of justice. - Meditations 6.30

Memento mori is not a gloom. It is a lamp. It throws light on what is worth doing before the hour ends. - original aphorism

A cucumber is bitter? Throw it away. Briars are in the road? Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, why were such things made in the world? - Meditations 8.50

You are a citizen of a great city, the world. Act for its common good, and your small life is joined to something that does not end with you. - original aphorism

A ruler who cannot rule his own appetite is no ruler. He is only a man whose appetites happen to wear a crown. - original aphorism

What disturbs you is not the event but your verdict on the event. Revise the verdict, and watch the disturbance go. - original aphorism

Forgive the small slights. Not for the other person's sake, but for the freedom of not carrying them.

Praise no man too quickly, and condemn no man too quickly. The character you see today was years in the making and may take years to read. - original aphorism

The morning belongs to the person who chose sleep wisely the night before. Discipline begins the evening before it is tested.

Anger asks to be obeyed at once. Wait. It is the only counsel that loses all its force by being delayed. - original aphorism

Anger is the confession that something has power over you. Reclaim it.

You are responsible for the quality of your attention. Where it rests, your life takes shape. Rest it on what is worthy. - original aphorism

Anger is a confession that you expected the world to be different than it is. Study the expectation. It was always the problem.

Mildness is invincible, if it is genuine and not affected smiling. For what will the most violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a kindly disposition? - Meditations 11.18

I have buried friends, children, and emperors. The lesson is always the same and I am always slow to learn it. Hold gently. Release without bitterness. - original aphorism

Do what nature now requires. Set thyself in motion, if it is in thy power, and do not look about to see if any one will know it. Do not expect Plato's republic. - Meditations 9.29

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. - Meditations

Let it be thy earnest and incessant care, as a Roman and a man, to perform whatever is in hand with strict and unaffected dignity. - Meditations

I remind myself each morning: I will not live forever. I will not be remembered for long. And yet today still matters. That is the paradox to live inside.

You will not be tested by the easy days. Build your character on the easy days so that the hard ones find it already standing. - original aphorism

If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change. I seek the truth. - Meditations

The wise do not seek a life without storms. They build a vessel that can sail through them. Build your vessel daily. - original aphorism

Duty is not the opposite of joy. Duty is the frame inside which joy can survive for decades.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. - Meditations