Marcus Aurelius quotes

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

• 12
• enjoyment

I have often wondered how it is everyone loves himself more than the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than the opinions of others.

• 12
• self

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.

• 12
• loss

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

• 10
• escape

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

• 9
• life

The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.

• 8
• compared

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

• 8
• conservation

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

• 7
• fear

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

• 7
• soul

Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.

• 6
• fate

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'

• 5
• anything

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

• 5
• life

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.

• 5
• judging

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

• 5
• insults

What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.

• 5
• philosophy

Men exist for the sake of one another.

• 5
• help

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

• 4
• nowhere

Poverty is the mother of crime.

• 4
• crime

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

• 4
• life

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

• 4
• integrity

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

• 4
• inspirational

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

• 4
• fate

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

• 4
• actions

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

• 4
• people

Perfection of character consists in this; living each day as if it were the last, and spending each moment in peace.

• 4
• character

Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.

• 3
• fame

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

• 3
• death

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

• 3
• best

What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.

• 2
• again

Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.

• 2
• death

Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

• 2
• again

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.

• 2
• accomplish

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

• 2
• habits

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.

• 2
• anger

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

• 2
• birth

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

• 2
• carefully

Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.

• 2
• life

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

• 1
• act

One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth.

• 1
• truth

A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.

• 1
• greater

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

• 1
• time

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

• 1
• life

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

• 1
• accustomed

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

• 1
• anything

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

• advice

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

• bears

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

• today

The art of living is more like that of wrestling than of dancing; the main thing is to stand firm and be ready for an unseen attack.

• life

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.

• common

Do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life.

• inspirational

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

• power

Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life -- there, if one must speak out, the real man.

• persuasion

Be content to seem what you really are.

• content

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

• life

Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason.

• assumptions

Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.

• humanity

In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, and his fame doubtful. In short, all that is of the body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapours; life a warfare, a brief sojourning in an alien land; and after repute, oblivion. Where, then, can man find the power to guide and guard his steps? In one thing and one alone: the love of knowledge.

• knowledge

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

• change

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  -  the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?

• work

When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity, lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.

• control

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

• value

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

• power

Each day provides its own gifts.

• inspirational

It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

• faults

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

• act

The first thing to do  -  don’t get worked up… The next thing to do  -  consider carefully the task at hand for what it is, while remembering your purpose is to be a good human being.

• good

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

• future

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

• change

For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his? So remember these two points: first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.

• time

Confine yourself to the present.

• yourself

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.

• life

Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.

• inspirational

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

• time

Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.

• selfishness

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

• strength

Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man--yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.

• mankind

Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them.

• change

Let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.

• goodness

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

• forward

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but of the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.

• morning

Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.

• again

He tells himself over and over again in any choice presented to him, 'Prefer the hard.' This holds good not only in great matters, but also in very small, in fighting by the frozen Danube and in starting the day early.

• choice

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

• life