Best quotes by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
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.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good person should be. Be one.
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
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.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
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.
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
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.
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
A man's life is what his thoughts make of it.
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.
The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.
Your life is what your thoughts make it.
The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.
Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
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.
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.
Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.
Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.
Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.
Where a man can live, he can also live well.
How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.
Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.
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Marcus Aurelius Quotes About
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A man's life is what his thoughts make of it.
Your life is what your thoughts make it.
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.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
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.
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.
And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.
Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.
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.
The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
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Marcus Aurelius death quotes
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Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
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.
Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
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Marcus Aurelius again quotes
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What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.
Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.
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Marcus Aurelius power quotes
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You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
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Marcus Aurelius soul quotes
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The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
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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.
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
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.
The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Men exist for the sake of one another.
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.
What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
Perfection of character consists in this; living each day as if it were the last, and spending each moment in peace.
Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
A man should be upright, not be kept upright.
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.
To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
Poverty is the mother of crime.
Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.
To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.
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.'
When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.
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.
Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.
Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
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.
What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.
Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.
Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
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.
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.
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.
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.
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.
Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
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.
A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.
Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
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.
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.
The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.
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.
The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.
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.
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.
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.
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.
Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.
It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.
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Life
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