Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 161 to 180 AD. He was a Stoic philosopher and is considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers in history. He is also known for his book Meditations, which is a collection of his personal reflections and philosophical musings. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Marcus Aurelius on life, love, discipline.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
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.
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?'
Marcus Aurelius inspirational quote
Marcus Aurelius Image Quotes
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back. — Marcus Aurelius
How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new strategy.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Life
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. — Marcus Aurelius
Our life is what our thoughts make it. — Marcus Aurelius
What we do in life ripples in eternity. — Marcus Aurelius
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life. — Marcus Aurelius
Your life is what your thoughts make it. — Marcus Aurelius
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. — Marcus Aurelius
A man's life is what his thoughts make of it. — Marcus Aurelius
Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain. — Marcus Aurelius
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life. — Marcus Aurelius
motivational quote by Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Love
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
Love the people with whom fate brings you together — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
Though you break your heart, men will go on as before. — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him. — Marcus Aurelius
Adorn thyself with simplicity and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God. The poet says that Law rules all. And it is enough to
remember that law rules all. — Marcus Aurelius
Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Leadership
One of the recurring themes in Marcus' handbook is leadership's responsibility to work intelligently with what it is given and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices. — Marcus Aurelius
Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be, become one yourself! — Marcus Aurelius
Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Death
Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. — Marcus Aurelius
Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else. — Marcus Aurelius
Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore? — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
Everything is ephemeral, both that which remembers and that which is remembered. — Marcus Aurelius
Death, like birth, is one of nature's mysteries, the combining of primal elements and dissolving of the same into the same. — Marcus Aurelius
There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight. — Marcus Aurelius
Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter. — Marcus Aurelius
It were well to die if there be gods, and sad to live if there be none. — Marcus Aurelius
Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Work
You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone. — Marcus Aurelius
We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one's back is counterproductive. — Marcus Aurelius
He who eats my bread, does my will. — Marcus Aurelius
If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, 'I awake to do the work of a man.' — Marcus Aurelius
Reflect frequently upon the instability of things, and how very fast the scenes of nature are shifted. Matter is in perpetual flux. Change is always and everywhere at work; it strikes through causes and effects, and leaves nothing fixed and permanent. — Marcus Aurelius
Never forget that the universe is a single living organism possessed of one substance and one soul, holding all things suspended in a single consciousness and creating all things with a single purpose that they might work together spinning and weaving and knotting whatever comes to pass. — Marcus Aurelius
People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time-even when hard at work. — Marcus Aurelius
Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished. — Marcus Aurelius
Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it--turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself, so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal. — Marcus Aurelius
Can we wonder that men perish and are forgotten, when their noblest and most enduring works decay? Death comes even to monumental structures, and oblivion rests on the most illustrious names. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Success
The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues. — Marcus Aurelius
No man is happy who does not think himself so. — Marcus Aurelius
Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful - and hence neither good nor bad. — Marcus Aurelius
Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear; for where we are able to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected. — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach. — Marcus Aurelius
No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such — Marcus Aurelius
...small too even the longest fame thereafter, which is itself subject to a succession of little men who quickly die, and have no knowledge of themselves, let alone of those long dead. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Change
If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance. — Marcus Aurelius
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too. — Marcus Aurelius
If you are distressed by something, it is due to your own estimate of it; and you have the power to change it at will. — Marcus Aurelius
If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance. — Marcus Aurelius
Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it. — Marcus Aurelius
Observe constantly that all things take place by change. — Marcus Aurelius
Change your attitude to the things that bother you and you will be aware of them. — Marcus Aurelius
Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe. — Marcus Aurelius
Look at everything that exists, and observe that it is already in dissolution and in change, and as it were putrefaction or dispersion, or that everything is so constituted by nature as to die. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Philosophical
From the philosopher Catulus, never to be dismissive of a friend's accusation, even if it seems unreasonable, but to make every effort to restore the relationship to its normal condition. — Marcus Aurelius
If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher. — Marcus Aurelius
Every soul, the philosopher says, is involuntarily deprived of truth; consequently in the same way it is deprived of justice and temperance and benevolence and everything of the kind. It is most necessary to keep this in mind, for thus thou wilt be more gentle towards all. — Marcus Aurelius
He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Stoicism
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. — Marcus Aurelius
Choose not to be harmed and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed and you haven't been. — Marcus Aurelius
Run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something: the most famous, the most unfortunate, the most hated, the most whatever: Where is all that now? Smoke, dust, legend...or not even a legend. Think of all the examples. And how trivial the things we want so passionately are. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Nature
Take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear. — Marcus Aurelius
Nothing is evil which is according to nature. — Marcus Aurelius
Once you have done a man a service, what more reward would you have? Is it not enough to have obeyed the laws of your own nature, without expecting to be paid for it? — Marcus Aurelius
Take it that you have died today, and your life's story is ended; and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature. — Marcus Aurelius
If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. It is in your power to erase this judgment about it. If anything in your own nature gives you pain, you are who hinders you from correcting your opinion. — Marcus Aurelius
Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time. — Marcus Aurelius
The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now molds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else. — Marcus Aurelius
A rational nature admits of nothing but what is serviceable to the rest of mankind. — Marcus Aurelius
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. — Marcus Aurelius
Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them. — Marcus Aurelius
Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live. — Marcus Aurelius
Live not one's life as though one had a thousand years, but live each day as the last. — Marcus Aurelius
Live your life as if you are ready to say goodbye to it at any moment, as if the time left for you were some pleasant surprise. — Marcus Aurelius
Short is the little which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain. — Marcus Aurelius
This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate. — Marcus Aurelius
Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just. — Marcus Aurelius
Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Mind
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions. — Marcus Aurelius
It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own. — Marcus Aurelius
Always bear this in mind, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life. — Marcus Aurelius
Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about. — Marcus Aurelius
Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already. — Marcus Aurelius
Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible. — Marcus Aurelius
Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind. — Marcus Aurelius
Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. — Marcus Aurelius
By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes About Soul
Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it. — Marcus Aurelius
Withdraw to the untroubled quietude deep within the soul, and refresh yourself. — Marcus Aurelius
Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. — Marcus Aurelius
To live happily is an inward power of the soul. — Marcus Aurelius
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
The soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then, with a continuous series of such thoughts as these - that where a man can live, there - if he will - he can also live well. — Marcus Aurelius
In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors. — Marcus Aurelius
Live with the gods. And he does so who constantly shows them that his soul is satisfied with what is assigned to him. — Marcus Aurelius
Your manners will depend very much upon the quality of what you frequently think on; for the soul is as it were tinged with the colour and complexion of thought. — Marcus Aurelius
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Famous Quotes And Sayings
Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back. — Marcus Aurelius
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. — Marcus Aurelius
Our life is what our thoughts make it. — Marcus Aurelius
Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize? — Marcus Aurelius
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. — Marcus Aurelius
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. — Marcus Aurelius
Your life is what your thoughts make it. — Marcus Aurelius
I'm going to be meeting with people today who talk too much - people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won't be surprised or disturbed, for I can't imagine a world without such people. — Marcus Aurelius
Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours. — Marcus Aurelius
Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so. — Marcus Aurelius
A man's life is what his thoughts make of it. — Marcus Aurelius
The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are. — Marcus Aurelius
When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one's energy, that one's modesty, another's generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we're practically showered with them. It's good to keep this in mind. — Marcus Aurelius
The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid. — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbors, unless with a view to some mutual benefit. To wonder what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he is saying, or thinking, or scheming -- in a word, anything that distracts you from fidelity to the ruler within you -- means a loss of opportunity for some other task. — Marcus Aurelius
Don't be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you've been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what? — Marcus Aurelius
In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself. — Marcus Aurelius
The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That's all you need to know. — Marcus Aurelius
Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought. — Marcus Aurelius
The inner master, when confronted with an obstacle, uses it as fuel, like a fire which consumes things that are thrown into it. A small lamp would be snuffed out, but a big fire will engulf what is thrown at it and burn hotter; it consumes the obstacle and uses it to reach a higher level. — Marcus Aurelius
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig. — Marcus Aurelius
No one was ever injured by the truth; but he who persists in self-deception and ignorance is injured. — Marcus Aurelius
Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after. — Marcus Aurelius
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. — Marcus Aurelius
Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them. — Marcus Aurelius
Your life is an expression of all your thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy. — Marcus Aurelius
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look. — Marcus Aurelius
Nature set a limit on sleep - as it did on eating and drinking. And youre over the limit. But not of working. There youre still below your quota. You dont love yourself enough. Or youd love your nature too and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it. They even forget to wash and eat. — Marcus Aurelius
Do every act of your life as if it were your last. — Marcus Aurelius
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. — Marcus Aurelius
If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt. — Marcus Aurelius
Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. — Marcus Aurelius
It doesn't hurt me unless I interpret its happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to. — Marcus Aurelius
Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy. — Marcus Aurelius
Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it. — Marcus Aurelius
To expect an impossibility is madness. — Marcus Aurelius
Each day provides its own gifts. — Marcus Aurelius
Do not be wise in words - be wise in deeds. — Marcus Aurelius
Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them. — Marcus Aurelius
Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil. — Marcus Aurelius
Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the emerald were always saying this: "Whatever any one does or says, I must still be emerald, and keep my color. — Marcus Aurelius
A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions. — Marcus Aurelius
Dig within. There lies the wellspring of good. — Marcus Aurelius
Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region it takes place. The whole earth a point in space - and most of it uninhabited. — Marcus Aurelius
Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody. — Marcus Aurelius
Whosoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whosoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil. — Marcus Aurelius
Men exist for the sake of one another. — Marcus Aurelius
A man should be upright, not be kept upright. — Marcus Aurelius
That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees. — Marcus Aurelius
Poverty is the mother of crime. — Marcus Aurelius
Life Lessons by Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius taught the importance of living a life of virtue and self-discipline. He believed that by focusing on the present moment and living with intention, we can improve our lives and be better people.
He also encouraged us to practice gratitude and to be mindful of our thoughts, words, and actions. He believed that by being aware of our behavior, we can live a life of contentment and joy.
Lastly, Marcus Aurelius taught us to be humble and to recognize that we are all connected and part of something greater than ourselves. He believed that by understanding our place in the world, we can achieve true peace and fulfillment.
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