Several of these are instructions rather than observations, which is how they were meant. The Enchiridion is a handbook, and Marcus wrote his notebooks to be reread.
At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.1
Remember how long you have been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you still have not used them. Time to realize what kind of universe you are part of.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.4
If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations XII.17
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.16
Every hour focus your mind attentively on the performance of the task in hand, with dignity, human sympathy, benevolence, and freedom, and leave aside all other thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.5
Whatever rules you have laid down for yourself, abide by them as if they were laws and as if you would commit impiety in transgressing them.
Epictetus, Enchiridion 50
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus, Discourses III.23
He is free who lives as he wills, who is subject neither to compulsion, nor hindrance, nor force, whose movements to action are not impeded, whose desires attain their purpose, and who does not fall into that which he would avoid.
Epictetus, Discourses IV.1
To live, my Lucilius, is to be a soldier.
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius Letter 96
Set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands.
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius Letter 1
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested.
Seneca, On the Shortness of Life 1
A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations II.5
Marcus turns these into a daily practice for iOS: a morning preparation, a daily reading matched to what you are working on, and an honest evening examination.
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