101
The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.
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102
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship
103
Oh! the delights of rest when a man comes to be weary, and of meat when he is heartily hungry.
104
How many casualties and difficulties are there that we dread as insupportable mischiefs, which, upon farther thoughts, we find to be mercies and benefits?
105
In time, the most stubborn grief will leave us, if in prudence we do not leave that first.
106
Life is a navigation; we are perpetually wallowing and dashing one against another; sometimes we suffer shipwreck, but we are always in danger and in expectation of it.
107
Providence treats us like a generous father, and brings us up to labors, toils, and dangers; whereas the indulgence of a fond mother makes us weak and spiritless.
108
Fortune lashes and mangles us: well, let us endure it: it is not cruelty, it is a struggle, in which the oftener we engage the braver we shall become.
109
Do not, I beg you, dread those things which the immortal gods apply to our minds like spurs: misfortune is virtue's opportunity.
110
Misfortunes press hardest on those who are unacquainted with them: the yoke feels heavy to the tender neck.
111
There are a thousand other instances in which application has conquered all obstacles, and proved that nothing which the mind has set itself to endure is difficult.
112
Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged character of our people, and on their faith.
113
To the man who is penetrated with true principles, the shortest, the most common hint is a sufficient memorial to keep him free of sorrow and fear.
114
If you are beaten off, return again to the effort, and content yourself that your conduct is generally such as becomes a man.
115
Do not confound yourself by considering the whole of life, and by dwelling upon the multitude and greatness of the pains and troubles to which you may probably be exposed.
116
Recollect all you have passed through, all that you have had strength to bear.
117
the mind can convert and change everything that impedes its activity into matter for its action; hindrance in its work becomes its real help, and every obstruction makes for its progress
118
each rational being can make every impediment in his way a proper matter for himself to act upon, and can use it for his guiding purpose, whatever it may be
Marcus Aureliusdisputed·The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (trans. George W. Chrystal)·1902
Attribution contested
This is the passage behind the slogan the obstacle is the way, which Marcus never wrote. That phrase is the title of a 2014 book, and the sentence usually quoted with it -- the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way -- is Gregory Hays's 2002 translation, still in copyright. The thought is genuinely his; the memorable English is not.
119
Bear toil and pain, not as if wretched under it, nor as courting pity or admiration.
120
No man can hinder the proper work of the mind.
121
So few of us can understand what it takes to make a man—the man who will never say die; the man who will never give up
122
Supposing, then, each separate misfortune to occasion a separate additional grief, the whole would be too great to be supportable.
123
My dear Laelius and Scipio, we must stand up against old age and make up for its drawbacks by taking pains.
124
Such friendship enhances prosperity, and relieves adversity of its burden by halving and sharing it.
125
he kept his mind at full stretch like a bow, and never gave in to old age by growing slack