Marcus opens his second book by listing the people he expects to meet that day and why he cannot hate them. It is a preparation, written before the day began, not a reflection afterwards.
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.1
It is a man's special privilege to love even those who wrong him.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VII.22
How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he himself is doing, that it may be just and pure.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations IV.18
Do not waste the rest of your life in thoughts about other people, when you are not thinking with reference to some aspect of the common good. Why deprive yourself of the time for some other task?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations III.4
Do not be ashamed to be helped. It is your task to achieve your appointed duty, like a soldier in the breach.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VII.7
Where you find fault, do not in your turn find fault. There is no need to commit injustice in defending yourself against it.
Epictetus, Discourses III.22
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
Seneca, On Anger II.29
I shall keep watch on myself, and — what is the most useful — I will examine each day. This is what makes us evil: that none of us looks back over his own life.
Seneca, On Anger III.36
Life without friends is no life at all. Friendship adds a brighter radiance to prosperity and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.
Cicero, On Friendship 6
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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