Marcus Aurelius Quotes
-
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.
-
All those events in history were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.
-
Live as on a mountain. ...Let men see, let them know a real man who lives according to nature. If they cannot endure him, let them kill him. For that is better than to live thus.
-
Very little is needed to make a happy life.
-
Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
-
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.
-
Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
-
Why dost thou not pray... to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen?
-
There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.
-
All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.
-
Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
-
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)
-
I consist of a little body and a soul.
-
Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
-
You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.
-
Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more suitable?
-
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.
-
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.
-
No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.
-
Use these rules then, and trouble thyself about nothing else.
-
Remember this, then, that this little compound, thyself, must either be dissolved, or they poor breath must be extinguished, or be removed and placed elsewhere.
-
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.
-
Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
-
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.