Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about thee, and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing shall steal into them without being well examined.
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And virtue they will curse, speaking harsh words.
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As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
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And finally remember that nothing harms him who is really a citizen, which does not harm the state; nor yet does anything harm the state which does not harm law order; and of these things which are called misfortunes not one harms law. What then does not harm law does not harm either state or citizen.
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How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility.
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That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.
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Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it.
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It is a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to regulate and compose itself as the mind commands, and for the mind not to be regulated and composed by itself.
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Remember this- that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
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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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How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!
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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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The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.
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Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man - yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.
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If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.
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You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that's all even the gods can ask of you. (Hays translation)
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To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing – here is perfection of character.
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If the gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for it.
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Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.
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Ἐγγὺς μὲν ἡ σὴ περὶ πάντων λήθη, ἐγγὺς δὲ ἡ πάντων περὶ σοῦ λήθη.
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Depart then satisfied, for he also who releases thee is satisfied.
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The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
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Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee.
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Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.