John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 939
| Marcus Aurelius. (121–180) (continued) |
| 9036 |
| Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man,—yesterday in embryo, to-morrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hair’s-breadth of time assigned to thee live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it. |
| Meditations. iv. 48. |
| 9037 |
| Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past. |
| Meditations. iv. 50. |
| 9038 |
| Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason. |
| Meditations. iv. 51. |
| 9039 |
| In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; “I am rising to a man’s work.” |
| Meditations. v. 1. |
| 9040 |
| A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season. |
| Meditations. v. 6. |
| 9041 |
| Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee. |
| Meditations. v. 9. |
| 9042 |
| Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear. |
| Meditations. v. 18. |
| 9043 |
| Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything. |
| Meditations. v. 21. |
| 9044 |
| Live with the gods. |
| Meditations. v. 27. |
| 9045 |
| Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee. |
| Meditations. vi. 3. |
| 9046 |
| The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works. |
| Meditations. vi. 5. |
| 9047 |
| Do not think that what is hard for thee to master is impossible for man; but if a thing is possible and proper to man, deem it attainable by thee. |
| Meditations. vi. 19. |