When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive -- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

More from Marcus Aurelius

• He was a man who looked at what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man’s acts.
• He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
• Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill.
• The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
• Do every act of thy life as if it were the last.
• Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.