Related:

• Let no act be done at haphazard, nor otherwise than according to the finished rules that govern its kind.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, iv, 2...
• Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, vi, 3...
• The ruling power within, when it is in its natural state, is so related to outer circumstances that it easily changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, iv, 1...
• Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, iv, 4...
• Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, iv, 15...
• Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, iv, 50...
• By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, iv, 3...
• The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, vi, 5...
• All is ephemeral,--fame and the famous as well.
  -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) -- Meditations, iv, 35...