Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
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When thou art offended at any man's fault, forthwith turn to thyself and reflect in what manner thou doest error thyself... For by attending to this thou wilt quickly forget thy anger, if this consideration is also added, that the man is compelled; for what else could he do? or, if thou art able, take away from him the compulsion.
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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.
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If...it be a thing external that causes thy grief, know, that it is not that properly that doth cause it, but thine own conceit and opinion concerning the thing: which thou mayest rid thyself of, when thou wilt.
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Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.
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'Let your occupations be few,' says the sage, 'if you would lead a tranquil life.'
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Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.
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Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life.
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From Antisthenes: It is royal to do good and be abused.
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Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility.
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All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.
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This is a fine saying of Plato: That he who is discoursing about men should look also at earthly things as if he viewed them from some higher place; should look at them... a mixture of all things and an orderly combination of contraries.
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How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.
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Yet living and dying, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, and so forth are equally the lot of good men and bad. Things like these neither elevate nor degrade; and therefore they are no more good than they are evil.
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Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
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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.
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To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.
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Nothing happens to anyone that he can't endure. (Hays translation)
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Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
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Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
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Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
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All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.
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Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
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You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.