Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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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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No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.
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How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.
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'Let your occupations be few,' says the sage, 'if you would lead a tranquil life.'
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Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
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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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Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
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That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.
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The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
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Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
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A little time, and thou shalt close thy eyes; and him who has attended thee to thy grave, another soon will lament.
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You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.
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A man should be upright, not kept upright.
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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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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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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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Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
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Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.
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There are three relations between thee and other things: the one to the body which surrounds thee; the second to the divine cause from which all things come to all; and the third to those who live with thee.
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Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.
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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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Live with the gods.
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For thus it is, men of Athens, in truth: wherever a man has placed himself thinking it is the best place for him, or has been placed by a commander, there in my opinion he ought to stay and to abide the hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or anything else, before the baseness of deserting his post.
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Very little is needed to make a happy life.