Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.

Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.

Why are we still lazy, indifferent and dull? Why do we look for excuses to avoid training and exercising our powers of reason?

Because what is a human being? Part of a community – the community of gods and men, primarily, and secondarily that of the city we happen to inhabit, which is only a microcosm of the universe in toto.

Resolve to accept whatever happens as necessary and familiar, flowing like water from that same source and spring.

For what does reason purport to do? “Establish what is true, eliminate what is false and suspend judgement in doubtful cases”.

Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing else than mixture and dispersion. Why, then, are you disturbed?

Whether the universe is a concourse of atoms, or nature is a system, let this first be established: that I am a part of the whole that is governed by nature; next, that I stand in some intimate connection with other kindred parts.

Whatever the nature of the whole does, and whatever serves to maintain it, is good for every part of nature.

The man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet, will in every place he visits find something to prevent him from relaxing.

Show me one person who cares how they act, someone for whom success is less important than the manner in which it is achieved. While out walking, who gives any thought to the act of walking itself? Who pays attention to the process of planning, not just the outcome?

If you want something you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you’re willing to risk failure.

Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

Failure is a state of mind. It’s like one of those sand traps an ant lion digs. You keep sliding back. Takes one hell of a jump to get out of it.

To investigate and analyze, with understanding and logic, the principles we ought to live by. (What Marcus learned from Sextus)

The way he handled the material comforts that fortune had supplied him in such abundance – without arrogance and without apology. If they were there, he took advantage of them. If not, he didn’t miss them. (What Marcus learned from his adopted father)

To rest in these principles only: the one, that nothing will happen to me which is not conformable to the nature of the universe; and the other, that it is in my power never to act contrary to my god and daimon: for there is no man who will compel me to this.

It is a proper work of a man to be benevolent to his own kind, to despise the movements of the senses, to form a just judgment of plausible appearances, and to take a survey of the nature of the universe and of the things that happen in it.

Constantly recall those who have complained greatly about anything, those who have been most conspicuous by the greatest fame or misfortunes or enmities or fortunes of any kind: then think, where are they all now? Smoke and ash and a tale, or not even a tale.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

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.

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Others have been plundered, indiscriminately, set upon, betrayed, beaten up, attacked with poison or with calumny – mention anything you like, it has happened to plenty of people.

With respect to what may happen to you from without, consider that it happens either by chance or according to Providence, and you must neither blame chance nor accuse Providence.

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?

Giving up is the only sure way to fail.

Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Does what’s happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness, and all other qualities that allow a person’s nature to fulfill itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.

Stop allowing yourself your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.

Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?

The world is maintained by change – in the elements and in the things they compose. That should be enough for you; treat it as an axiom.

But if you accept the obstacle and work with what you’re given, an alternative will present itself – another piece of what you’re trying to assemble. Action by action.

Bear in mind that everything that exists is already fraying at the edges, and in transition, subject to fragmentation and to rot. Or that everything was born to die.

Before long, nature, which controls it all, will alter everything you see and use it as material for something else – over and over again. So that the world is continually renewed.

Don’t be disappointed if you return home with the very same set of ideas you arrived with. Because you had no intention of changing, correcting or adopting others in their place.

If we try to adapt our mind to the regular sequence of changes and accept the inevitable with good grace, our life will proceed quite smoothly and harmoniously.

In like manner view also the other epochs of time and of whole nations, and see how many after great efforts soon fell and were resolved into the elements.

All things are changing: and you yourself are in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction, and the whole universe, too.

It is in no man’s power to have whatever he wants; but he has it in his power not to wish for what he hasn’t got, and cheerfully make the most of the things that do come his way.

Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.

Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them.

So does this misfortune prevent you in any way from being just, generous, sober, reasonable, careful, free from error, courteous, free, etc. – all of which together make human nature complete?

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.