Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
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Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things which come from the external cause; and let there be justice in the things done by virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be movement and action terminating in this, in social acts, for this is according to thy nature.
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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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'Let your occupations be few,' says the sage, 'if you would lead a tranquil life.'
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Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.
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From Antisthenes: It is royal to do good and be abused.
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Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life.
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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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The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
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From Plato: the man who has an elevated mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, dost thou suppose it possible for him to think that human life is anything great? It is not possible, he said. Such a man then will think that death also is no evil.
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I consist of a little body and a soul.
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He that dies in extreme old age will be reduced to the same state with him that is cut down untimely.
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In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; 'I am rising to a man’s work.'
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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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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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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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No state sorrier than that of the man who keeps up a continual round, and pries into 'the secrets of the nether world,' as saith the poet, and is curious in conjecture of what is in his neighbour's heart.
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Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
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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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How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.
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There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return. (Hays translation)
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Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.