Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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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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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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Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
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Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
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You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.
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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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Very little is needed to make a happy life.
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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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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 controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
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There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.
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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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Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.
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Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
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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.
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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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Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
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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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Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?
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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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Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable to hold out against even this.
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The nature of the All moved to make the universe.
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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.