Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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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.
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Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
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Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.
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Think on this doctrine,-that reasoning beings were created for one another's sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it.
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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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Very little is needed to make a happy life.
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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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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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Every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution; and all other things have been constituted for the sake of the superior, but the rational for the sake of one another.
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The nature of the All moved to make the universe.
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Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
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The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
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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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There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.
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All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.
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Use these rules then, and trouble thyself about nothing else.
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In the constitution of that rational animal I see no virtue which is opposed to justice, but I see a virtue which is opposed to love of pleasure, and that is temperance.
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Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
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Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.
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All those events in history were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.
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Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
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Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.
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Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear?
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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.