To watch the courses of the stars as if you revolved with them. To keep constantly in mind how the elements alter into one another. Thoughts like this wash off the mud of life below.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Thoughts like this →
Being valuable →
Today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness.
~ Viktor Frankl
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Each existing only briefly →
Nature takes substance and makes a horse. Like a sculpture with wax. And then melts it down and uses the material for a tree. Then for a person. Then for something else. Each existing only briefly. It does the container no harm to be put together, and none to be taken apart.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Express it →
The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.
~ Mortimer Adler
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You have the option →
Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option:
~ Marcus Aurelius
– to accept this event with humility
– to treat this person as he should be treated
– to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in.
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Perfection →
[I] will not be better than Socrates; but if I am not worse, that is enough for me. I shall never be a Milo, and yet I do not neglect my body; nor a Croesus, and yet I do not neglect my property: Nor, in general, do we cease to take pains in any area, because we despair of arriving at the highest degree of perfection.
~ Epictetus
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Application and capacity →
Application and capacity. Eminence requires both. When both are present, eminence outdoes itself. The mediocre people who apply themselves go further than the superior people who don’t. Work makes worth.
~ Baltasar Gracián
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Your assignment, complete →
Consider all that you’ve gone through, all that you’ve survived. And that the story of your life is done, your assignment complete. How many good things have you seen? How much pain and pleasure have you resisted? How many honors have you declined? How many unkind people have you been kind to?
~ Marcus Aurelius
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To be free →
The attachment to beliefs is the greatest shackle. To be free is to know that one does not know.
~ Wu Hsin
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The best revenge →
The best revenge is not to be like that.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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