Since the greatest part of what we say and do is unnecessary, dispensing with such activities affords a man more leisure and less uneasiness. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations IV.24

It is in your power whenever you choose to retire into yourself. For there is no retreat that is quieter or freer from trouble than a man’s own soul. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations IV.3

To rest in these principles only: the one, that nothing will happen to me which is not conformable to the nature of the universe; and the other, that it is in my power never to act contrary to my god and daimon: for there is no man who will compel me to this. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations V.10

Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations V.13

Think of the universal substance, of which you have a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to you; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it you are. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations V.24

How soon will time cover all things, and how many it has covered already. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations VI.59

This, then, is consistent with the character of a reflecting man, to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of nature. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations, IX.3

How short is the time from birth to dissolution, and the illimitable time before birth as well as the equally boundless time after dissolution. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations, IX.32

He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations, IX.4

Where is the harm or the strangeness in the boor acting like a boor? See whether you are not yourself the more to blame in not expecting that he would err in such a way. For you had means given you by your reason to suppose that it was likely that he would commit this error, and yet you have forgotten and are amazed that he has erred. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations, IX.

In a little while you will have forgotten everything; in a little while everything will have forgotten you. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations, VII.21

About death: Whether it is a dispersion, or a resolution into atoms, or annihilation, it is either extinction or change. ― Marcus Aurelius Meditations, VII.32