Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours. – Marcus Aurelius
Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time. – Marcus Aurelius
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. – Marcus Aurelius
One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth. – Marcus Aurelius
In the traditional urban novel, there is only survival or not. The suburban idea, the conformist idea, that agony can be seen to and cured by doctors or psychoanalysis or self-knowledge is nowhere to be found in the city. Talking is a way of life, but it is not a cure. Same with religion. – Jane Smiley