The Meditations

The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. 'The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.'

of­fence which is com­mit­ted with pleas­ure is more blame­able than that which is com­mit­ted with pain;

He who does not know what the world is, does not know where he is. And he who does not know for what pur­pose the world ex­ists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is

Re­ceive wealth or prosper­ity without ar­rog­ance; and be ready to let it go.

and he could ex­press ap­prob­a­tion without noisy dis­play, and he pos­sessed much know­ledge without os­ten­ta­tion.

Is any man so foolish as to fear change, to which all things that
once were not owe their being

And if all men re­fuse to be­lieve that he lives a simple, mod­est, and con­ten­ted life, he is neither angry with any of them, nor does he de­vi­ate from the way which leads to the end of life, to which a man ought to come pure, tran­quil, ready to de­part, and without any com­pul­sion per­fectly re­con­ciled to his lot.

the soul does vi­ol­ence to it­self when it is over­powered by pleas­ure or by pain.

Give thy­self time to learn some­thing new and good, and cease to be whirled around.

Men ex­ist for the sake of one an­other. Teach them then or bear with them