The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.
Marcus wrote this as a reminder to answer wrongdoing without copying it. Stoics held that harming others first harms the character of the person who does it, so imitation is the real loss. The wording is George Long’s 1862 translation, which is in the public domain; modern translations phrase it differently.
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgement now.
Nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Men are disturbed, not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.