My notes and extracts from the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Set 1 reproduced in this blog post for your reading:
I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him.
For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.
See the breath also, what kind of a thing it is; air, and not always the same, but every moment sent out and again sucked in.
Thou art an old man; no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or shrink from the future.
Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return.
Those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.
The offenses which are committed through desire are more blamable than those which are committed through anger.
Rightly, then, and in a way worthy of philosophy, he said that the offence which is committed with pleasure is more blamable than that which is committed with pain.
How quickly all things disappear,—in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them.
For a man cannot lose either the past or the future: for what a man has not, how can any one take this from him?
For the present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived, if it is true that this is the only thing which he has, and that a man cannot lose a thing if he has it not.
Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility.
We ought then to check in the series of our thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of all the over-curious feeling and the malignant.
Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give.
In the mind of one who is chastened and purified thou wilt find no corrupt matter, nor impurity, nor any sore skinned over.
Throwing away then all things, hold to these only which are few; and besides, bear in mind that every man lives only this present time, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or it is uncertain.
See how soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos of infinite time on each side of [the present].
One is that things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within.
The other is that all these things, which thou seest, change immediately and will no longer be; and constantly bear in mind how many of these changes thou hast already witnessed.
The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
But by all means bear this in mind, that within a very short time both thou and he will be dead; and soon not even your names will be left behind.
Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only to what he does himself.
He who has a vehement desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon.
Everything which is in any way beautiful is beautiful in itself, and terminates in itself, not having praise as part of itself. Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised.
Is this one of the unnecessary things? Now a man should take away not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for thus superfluous acts will not follow after.
Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.
Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being.
Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.
To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a little mucus, to-morrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.
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