Marcus Aurelius Quotes
-
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
-
Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.
-
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.
-
Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not even here do all agree, no, not any one with himself: and the whole earth too is a point.
-
Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?
-
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.
-
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.
-
No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.
-
Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
-
Οἷς συγκεκλήρωσαι πράγμασι, τούτοις συνάρμοζε σεαυτόν, καὶ οἷς συνείληχας ἀνθρώποις, τούτους φίλει, ἀλλ ἀληθινῶς.
-
Rememberest the gods, and that they wish not to be flattered, but wish all reasonable beings to be made like themselves; and... rememberest that what does the work of a fig-tree is a fig-tree, and that what does the work of a dog is a dog, and that what does the work of a bee is a bee, and that what does the work of a man is a man.
-
A man standing by a spring of clear, sweet water and cursing it. While the fresh water keeps on bubbling up. He can shovel mud into it, or dung, and the stream will carry it away, wash itself clean, remain unstained. (Hays translation)
-
Look within. Within is the fountain of the good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
-
In the case of all things which have a certain constitution, whatever harm may happen to any of them, that which is affected becomes consequently worse; but in like case, a man becomes both better... and more worthy of praise, by making the right use of these accidents.
-
I consist of a little body and a soul.
-
In the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that the pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bear in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination...
-
How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!
-
If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.
-
Remember that all is opinion.
-
The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.
-
Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of Lamiae, bugbears to frighten children.
-
All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
-
Thou mayest foresee... the things which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of things now: accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years.
-
Let this always be plain to thee, that this piece of land is like any other; and that all things here are the same with all things on the top of a mountain, or on the sea-shore, or wherever thou chooses to be. For thou wilt find just what Plato says, Dwelling within the walls of the city as in a shepherd's fold on a mountain.