C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Marcus Aurelius
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.
It is right that man should love those who have offended him. He will do so when he remembers that all men are his relations, and that it is through ignorance and involuntarily that they sin,—and then we all die so soon.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.
Remember this,—that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the emerald were always saying this: “Whatever any one does or says, I must still be emerald, and keep my color.”