Remember: You shouldn’t be surprised that a fig tree produces figs, nor the world what it produces. A good doctor isn’t surprised when his patients have fevers, or a helmsman when the wind blows against him.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Surprised →
Oneself →
There is no forest, there is no cave, there is no mountaintop where one can hide from oneself.
~ Wu Hsin
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My own →
Not to support this side or that in chariot-racing, this fighter or that in the games. To put up with discomfort and not make demands. To do my own work, mind my own business, and have no time for slanderers.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Your own mind →
Remember that to change your mind and to accept correction are free acts too. The action is yours; based on your own will, your own decision—and your own mind.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Stability →
A society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven.
~ James Baldwin
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Choose today →
Stick to what’s in front of you—idea, action, utterance. This is what you deserve. You could be good today. But instead you choose tomorrow.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Make haste slowly →
Diligence is quick to carry out what intelligence has lingered over. Fools are fond of hurry: They take no heed of obstacles and act incautiously. The wise usually fail through hesitation. Fools stop at nothing, the wise at everything. Sometimes things are judged correctly but go wrong out of inefficiency and neglect. Readiness is the mother of luck. It is a great deed to leave nothing for the morrow. A lofty motto: Make haste slowly.
~ Baltasar Gracián
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The fruit of a man’s mind →
No great thing comes into being all of a sudden; … Now if the fruit of a fig-tree is not brought to perfection suddenly and in a single hour, would you expext to gather the fruit of a man’s mind in so short a time, and so easily? I tell you, expect no such thing.
~ Epictetus
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Enjoyment →
The greatest enjoyment is experienced when there is no concern for its duration.
~ Wu Hsin
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Fundamentally →
What is this, fundamentally? What is its nature and substance, its reason for being? What is it doing in the world? How long is it here for?
~ Marcus Aurelius
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