Speaking for myself, I hope death overtakes me when I’m occupied solely with the care of my character, in an effort to make it passionless, free, unrestricted and unrestrained.

Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While you’re alive and able – be good.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

When somebody’s wife or child dies, to a man we all routinely say, ‘Well, that’s part of life.’ But if one of our own family is involved, then right away it’s ‘Poor, poor me!’ We would do better to remember how we react when a similar loss afflicts others.

Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever.

Since it is possible that you might depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.

Think continually that all kinds of men, pursuits, and nations are dead.

How quickly things disappear: in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the memory of them.

Whether it is a dispersion, or a resolution into atoms, or annihilation, it is either extinction or change. 

Finally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded. But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements?

Death is necessary and cannot be avoided. I mean, where am I going to go to get away from it?

Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

One thing I know: all the works of mortal man lie under sentence of mortality; we live among things that are destined to perish.

Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.

Because we’re the only animals who not only die but are conscious of it even while it happens, we are beset by anxiety.

This, then, is consistent with the character of a reflecting man, to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of nature.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

Death is not an evil. What is it then? The one law mankind has that is free of all discrimination.

(A tough one) There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen.

I cannot escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it.

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man’s life.

To expect punishment is to suffer it; and to earn it is to expect it.

Who wants to live with delusion and prejudice, being unjust, undisciplined, mean and ungrateful? ‘No one.’ No bad person, then, lives the way he wants, and no bad man is free.

He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.

Show me someone untroubled with disturbing thoughts about illness, danger, death, exile or loss of reputation. By all the gods, I want to see a Stoic!

Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love. 

When another blames you or hates you, or when men say anything injurious about you, approach their poor souls, penetrate within, and see what kind of men they are. You will discover that there is no reason to be concerned that these men have this or that opinion about you.

Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.

Pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting if you bear in mind that it has its limits, and if you add nothing to it in imagination.

Now think of the things which goad man into destroying man: they are hope, envy, hatred, fear and contempt.

Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.

If you like doing something, do it regularly; if you don’t like doing something, make a habit of doing something different. The same goes for moral inclinations. When you get angry, you should know that you aren’t guilty of an isolated lapse, you’ve encouraged a trend and thrown fuel on the fire.

If you shall be afraid not because you must some time cease to live, but if you shall fear never to have begun to live according to nature – then you will be a man worthy of the universe that has produced you, and you will cease to be a stranger in your native land.

The love of power or money or luxurious living are not the only things which are guided by popular thinking. We take our cue from people’s thinking even in the way we feel pain.

‘My brother is unfair to me.’ Well then, keep up your side of the relationship; don’t concern yourself with his behaviour, only with what you must do to keep your will in tune with nature.

If you don’t want to be cantankerous, don’t feed your temper, or multiply incidents of anger. Suppress the first impulse to be angry, then begin to count the days on which you don’t get mad.

Provoked by the sight of a handsome man or a beautiful woman, you will discover within you the contrary power of self-restraint. Faced with pain, you will discover the power of endurance. If you are insulted, you will discover patience. In time, you will grow to be confident that there is not a single impression that you will not have the moral means to tolerate.

Pain too is just a scary mask: look under it and you will see. The body sometimes suffers, but relief is never far behind. And if that isn’t good enough for you, the door stands open; otherwise put up with it. The door needs to stay open whatever the circumstances, with the result that our problems disappear.

The mind maintains its own tranquillity by retiring into itself, and the ruling faculty is not made worse. But the parts that are harmed by pain, let them, if they can, give their opinion about it.

So there is the comforting thing about extremities of pain: if you feel it too much you are bound to stop feeling it.

It is our own opinions that disturb us. Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss your judgment about an act as if it were something grievous, and your anger is gone.

Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?

A man must learn a great deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment on another man’s acts.

It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.

With what are you discontented? With the badness of men? Recall to your mind this conclusion, that rational animals exist for one another, and that to endure is a part of justice, and that men do wrong involuntarily.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, immediately turn to yourself and reflect in what manner you yourself have erred: for example, in thinking that money is a good thing or pleasure, or a bit of reputation, and the like.

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?

You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves.

If they’ve injured you, then they’re the ones who suffer for it. But have they?