Never value anything as profitable that compels you to break your promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains.

Only attend to yourself, and resolve to be a good man in every act that you do.

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

What is your art? To be good. And how is this accomplished well except by general principles, some about the nature of the universe, and others about the proper constitution of man?

People exist for one another. You can instruct or endure them.

As an antidote to battle unkindness we were given kindness.

What is your vocation? To be a good person.

Whatever any one does or says, I must be good, just as if the emerald (or the gold or the purple) were always saying “Whatever any one does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.”

First, do nothing inconsiderately or without a purpose. Second, make your acts refer to nothing else but a social end.

When a guide meets up with someone who is lost, ordinarily his reaction is to direct him on the right path, not mock or malign him, then turn on his heel and walk away. As for you, lead someone to the truth and you will find that he can follow. But as long as you don’t point it out to him, don’t make fun of him; be aware of what you need to work on instead.

That no one could ever have felt patronized by him – or in a position to patronize him. A sense of humour. (What Marcus learned from Maximus)

No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.

If you have been placed in a position above others, are you automatically going to behave like a despot? Remember who you are and whom you govern – that they are kinsmen, brothers by nature, fellow descendants of Zeus.

‘Well, what will my profession in the community be?’ Whatever position you are equipped to fill, so long as you preserve the man of trust and integrity.

Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.

Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.

To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind himself.

Have I done something for the common good? Then I share in the benefits. To stay centered on that. Not to give up.

The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.

Life is warfare… Then what can guide us? Only philosophy.

No role is so well suited to philosophy as the one you happen to be in right now.

The first thing a pretender to philosophy must do is get rid of their presuppositions; a person is not going to undertake to learn anything that they think they already know.

“It’s unfortunate that this has happened”. No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it — not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.

Take a good hard look at people’s ruling principle, especially of the wise, what they run away from and what they seek out.

People who are physically ill are unhappy with a doctor who doesn’t give them advice, because they think he has given up on them. Shouldn’t we feel the same towards a philosopher – and assume that he has given up hope of our ever becoming rational – if he will no longer tell us what we need (but may not like) to hear?

Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.

My advice is really this: what we hear the philosophers saying and what we find in their writings should be applied in our pursuit of the happy life. We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching, and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application – not far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech – and learn them so well that words become works.

The work of philosophy is simple and modest. Do not draw me aside into pomposity. 

It stares you in the face. No role is so well suited to philosophy as the one you happen to be in right now.

This, then, is the beginning of philosophy – an awareness of one’s own mental fitness.

This presumption that you possess knowledge of any use has to be dropped before you approach philosophy – just as if we were enrolling in a school of music or mathematics.

Reflect on the other social roles you play. If you are a council member, consider what a council member should do. If you are young, what does being young mean, if you are old, what does age imply, if you are a father, what does fatherhood entail? Each of our titles, when reflected upon, suggests the acts appropriate to it.

What then can guide a man? One thing and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daimon within a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy.

If you commit to philosophy, be prepared at once to be laughed at and made the butt of many snide remarks.

My city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome; but so far as I am a man, it is the world.

Do you want to know if you are educated? Show us your values, philosopher.

Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.