Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.
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The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
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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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'Let your occupations be few,' says the sage, 'if you would lead a tranquil life.'
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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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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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Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.
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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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How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.
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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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On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.
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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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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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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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Nothing happens to anyone that he can't endure. (Hays translation)
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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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Very little is needed to make a happy life.
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You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.
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Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
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Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
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Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more suitable?
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Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.