Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility. . . .
Marcus AureliusThere is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen.
Marcus AureliusBecause a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
Marcus AureliusThe happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
Marcus AureliusMen despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.
Marcus Aurelius