Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.

If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.

In a little while you will have forgotten everything; in a little while everything will have forgotten you.

Now it is in my power to let no badness be in this soul, nor desire nor any perturbation at all; but looking at all things, I see their true nature, and I use each according to its value.

Take me and cast me where you will; for there I shall keep my divine part tranquil, that is, content, if it can feel and act conformably to its proper constitution.

How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man! For it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal. And how small a part of the whole substance! And how small a part of the universal soul! And on what a small clod of the whole earth you creep!

Say to yourself each time, ‘He did what he believed was right.’ (When someone does something you don’t like)

Whenever anyone criticizes or wrongs you, remember that they are only doing or saying what they think is right. They cannot be guided by your views, only their own; so if their views are wrong, they are the ones who suffer insofar as they are misguided.

Constantly and, if it be possible, on the occasion of every impression on the soul, apply to it the principles of physics, ethics, and dialectics (logic).

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealousand surely… None of them can hurt me. Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people… It will keep you from doing anything useful. Why do you not rather act than complain?

The trick is to take advantage of the particular details of the mess you’ve made, so that your next attempt will be informed by it and not just another blind stab in the dark. t

"You take all of the experience and judgment of men over 50 out of the world and there wouldn't be enough left to run it."

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.

To fail is to give up. But you are in the midst of a moving process. Nothing fails then. All goes on. Work is done. If good, you learn from it. If bad, you learn even more.

Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new (and, as such, should be seen as valuable; without them, we’d have no originality).

If you aren’t experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake: You are being driven by the desire to avoid it.

The attempt to avoid failure makes failure more likely.

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

There are no failures, just experiences and your reactions to them.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again. Richard Branson

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.