1. What makes a human being beautiful? Shouldn’t it be the excellence of a human being? [Epictetus, D2.23]
2. There is no difference between breathing a single breath (as we do every moment) and having the ability to breathe for a long time (as we have done since our birth) only to give it back someday to the source. [Marcus Aurelius, M6.16]
3. Many people take pains to hide their feelings and never show themselves as they are. They live an artificial life to impress others. [Seneca, T17]
4. In every species nature produces an exceptional being. Among cattle, among dogs, among bees, among horses. Don’t ask that exceptional being, “Why, who are you?” [Epictetus, D3.1]
5. The elements move in all directions — above, below, and around us. But, virtue doesn’t move at random. She is more divine, moves serenely forward, and in ways we cannot understand. [Marcus Aurelius, M6.17]
6. We can never be at ease if we imagine that everyone who looks at us is judging our real worth. [Seneca, T17]
7. What makes you superior is your ability to reason. Decorate and beautify that aspect of you. [Epictetus, D3.1]
8. People behave in strange ways. They won’t praise their colleagues who live among them, yet crave for themselves the praise of future generations they have never seen and will never see. [Marcus Aurelius, M6.18]
9. What pleasure lies in that pure honesty, which is its own ornament, and which hides no part of its character! [Seneca, T17]
10. You are not flesh or hair but what you choose. If you make that beautiful, then you will be beautiful. [Epictetus, D3.1]
11. Don’t assume that something is impossible because you find it hard. Recognize that if something is possible and proper for a human being to do, you can do it too. [Marcus Aurelius, M6.19]
12. Even a frank life can be despised. Some people heap scorn on whatever they come close to. [Seneca, T17]
13. Passions arise only when we are frustrated in our desires or faced with what we don’t want. [Epictetus, D3.1]
14. Let’s overlook many things in our fellow human beings, but keep our distance, without suspicion or ill will. [Marcus Aurelius, M6.20]

Note: D: Discourses; M: Meditations; T: On Tranquility

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