Repeat mode

Pick one passage and read it, or hear it, over and over. Repetition is old Stoic practice: Marcus wrote his notes to himself so he could keep re-reading them.

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Epictetus

• Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.
• Of things some are in our power, and others are not.
• Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as the…
• Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is your opinion about these…
• You are impatient and hard to please. If alone, you call it solitude. … Whereas when by yourself you should ha…
• You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your power to conquer.
• How long will you then still defer thinking yourself worthy of the best things? … You are no longer a youth, b…
• Has any man been preferred before you at a banquet, or in being saluted, or in being invited to a consultation…
• Remember that in life you ought to behave as at a banquet. Suppose that something is carried round and is oppo…
• If you are told that such an one speaks ill of you, make no defence against what was said, but answer, He sure…
• If you would improve, submit to be considered without sense and foolish with respect to externals.
• Remember that thou art an actor in a play, of such a kind as the teacher (author) may choose; if short, of a s…

Marcus Aurelius

• If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about …
• Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the…
• It is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or mo…
• Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not thy thoughts at once embrace all the vari…
• The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like [the wrong-doer].
• Consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and vexation caused by such acts than by the acts th…
• Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, e…
• For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower te…
• Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied, if thou dost not succeed in doing everything according to…
• The rational animal is able to make every hindrance its own material, and to use it for such purposes as it ma…
• If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change.
• In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present,—I am rising to the work of a human b…
• Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how often thou hast received an opportunity fro…
• Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the th…
• Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, "I have been harmed."
• Repentance is a kind of self-reproof for having neglected something useful.
• If thou wilt take no notice of all the past, and trust the future to providence, and direct the present only c…
• I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less …
• Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
• Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny.
• Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some…
• Be not ashamed to be helped; for it is thy business to do thy duty like a soldier in the assault on a town. Ho…
• If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, do not think that it is impossible for man: but if anyt…
• Unhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because …
• The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand re…

Seneca

• There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in ima…
• Some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they …
• And there is nothing more wretched or foolish than premature fear.
• That which has been long expected comes more gently.
• The greatest remedy for anger is delay: beg anger to grant you this at the first, not in order that it may par…
• Some of the wisest of men have in consequence of this called anger a short madness.
• Solitude will cure us when we are sick of crowds, and crowds will cure us when we are sick of solitude.
• No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it.
• Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you.
• No prizefighter can go with high spirits into the strife if he has never been beaten black and blue. … one who…
• Fire tries gold, misfortune tries brave men.
• Hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of to-day’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morr…
• While we are postponing, life speeds by.
• The fool, with all his other faults, has this also,—he is always getting ready to live.”
• Boys fear trifles, children fear shadows, we fear both.
• It is tragic for the soul to be apprehensive of the future and wretched in anticipation of wretchedness.
• Aye, the willing soul Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along.
• We must humour our minds and grant them rest from time to time, which acts upon them like food, and restores t…
• Neither ought we always to keep the mind strained to the same pitch, but it ought sometimes to be relaxed by a…
• You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.
• Life is long enough, if you know how to use it.
• Men’s minds ought to have relaxation: they rise up better and more vigorous after rest. … continuous toil prod…