John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 937
| Marcus Aurelius. (121–180) (continued) |
| changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do. |
| Meditations. iv. 1. |
| 9013 |
| Let no act be done at haphazard, nor otherwise than according to the finished rules that govern its kind. |
| Meditations. iv. 2. |
| 9014 |
| By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered. |
| Meditations. iv. 3. |
| 9015 |
| Think on this doctrine,—that reasoning beings were created for one another’s sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it. |
| Meditations. iv. 3. |
| 9016 |
| The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. |
| Meditations. iv. 3. |
| 9017 |
| Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing. |
| Meditations. iv. 4. |
| 9018 |
| Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature. |
| Meditations. iv. 5. |
| 9019 |
| That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within. |
| Meditations. iv. 8. |
| 9020 |
| Whatever happens at all happens as it should; thou wilt find this true, if thou shouldst watch narrowly. |
| Meditations. iv. 10. |
| 9021 |
| Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference. |
| Meditations. iv. 15. |
| 9022 |
| Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good. |
| Meditations. iv. 17. |
| 9023 |
| How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy. |
| Meditations. iv. 18. |
| 9024 |
| Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised. |
| Meditations. iv. 20. |