Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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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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Live with the gods.
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Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference.
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The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
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Death,-a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.
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Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
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Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.
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An arrow has one motion and the mind another. Even when pausing, even when weighing conclusions, the mind is moving forward, toward its goal. (Hays translation)
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The whole contains nothing which is not or its advantage; and all natures indeed have this common principle, but the nature of the universe has this principle besides, that it cannot be compelled even by any external cause to generate anything harmful to itself.
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Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.
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The mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable. He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man: but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy.
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Though thou be destined to live three thousand years and as many myriads besides, yet remember that no man loseth other life than that which he liveth, nor liveth other than that which he loseth.
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By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
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A horse at the end of the race...A dog when the hunt is over...A bee with its honey stored...And a human being after helping others. They don't make a fuss about it. They just go on to something else, as the vine looks forward to bearing fruit again in season. We should be like that. Acting almost unconsciously. (Hays translation)
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It is not right to vex ourselves at things, For they care not about it.
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Thou sufferest justly: for thou choosest rather to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day.
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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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Continuously thou wilt look at human things as smoke and nothing at all; especially if thou reflectest at the same time, that what has once changed will never exist again in the infinite duration of time. But thou, in what a brief space of time is thy existence? And why art thou not content to pass through this short time in an orderly way?
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It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.
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Whatever happens at all happens as it should; you will find this true, if you watch narrowly.
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Ἐγγὺς μὲν ἡ σὴ περὶ πάντων λήθη, ἐγγὺς δὲ ἡ πάντων περὶ σοῦ λήθη.
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But that which is useful is the better.
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Some people, when they do someone a favor, are always looking for a chance to call it in. And some aren't, but they're still aware of it-still regard it as a debt. But others don't even do that. They're like a vine that produces grapes without looking for anything in return. (Hays translation)
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About fame... Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.