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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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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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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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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Use these rules then, and trouble thyself about nothing else.
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Remember that all is opinion.
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The nature of the All moved to make the universe.
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Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?
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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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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)
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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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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.
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All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
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The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.
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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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Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.
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The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
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Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.
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The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.
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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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Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.
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Nature has had regard in everything no less to the end than to the beginning and the continuance, just like a man who throws up a ball. What good is it then for the ball to be thrown up, or harm for it to come down... what good is it to the bubble while it holds together, or what harm when it is burst?
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He was a man who looked at what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man's acts
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To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing – here is perfection of character.