Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Everything is banal in experience, fleeting in duration, sordid in content; in all respects the same today as generations now dead and buried have found it to be.

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

The whole contains nothing that is not for its advantage. By remembering that I am part of such a whole, I shall be content with everything that happens.

It is right that man should love those who have offended him. He will do so when he remembers that all men are his relations, and that it is through ignorance and involuntarily that they sin,--and then we all die so soon.

Things themselves cannot touch the soul, not in the least degree, nor have they admission to the soul nor can they turn or move the soul: it turns and moves itself alone and whatever judgment it may think proper to make, such it makes by remaking for itself the things that present themselves to it

For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.

When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.

Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before.

The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

The only thing that isn't worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly, And be patience with those who don't.

Once you have done a man a service, what more reward would you have? Is it not enough to have obeyed the laws of your own nature, without expecting to be paid for it?

Don't let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.

An angry look on the face is wholly against nature. If it be assumed frequently, beauty begins to perish, and in the end is quenched beyond rekindling.

Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

Infinity is a fathomless gulf, into which all things vanish.

He does not write at all whose poems no man reads

Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.

When we consider we are bound to be serviceable to mankind, and bear with their faults, we shall perceive there is a common tie of nature and relation between us.

Life is short. That's all there is to say. Get what you can from the present - thoughtfully, justly.

Take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors.

Nature which governs the whole will soon change all things which you see, and out of their substance will make other things and again other things... in order that the world may be ever new.

It will suffice thee to remember as concerning pain ... that the mind may, by stopping all manner of commerce and sympathy with the body, still retain its own tranquility.

Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

Everything is here for a purpose, from horses to vine shoots. What's surprising about that? Even the sun will tell you, "I have a purpose," and the other goods as well.

It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.

I am called to man's labour; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?

For any particular thing, ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature?

Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.

When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.

Do not be ashamed of help.

There is no misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good fortune.

Take the shortest route. The one that nature planned - to speak and act in the healthiest way. Do that, and be free of pain and stress, free of all calculations and pretension.

Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.

Does a man shrink from change? Why, what can come into being save by change?

The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it. But all things are made and perfected according to this reason.

The stone that is thrown into the air is none the worse for falling down, and none the better for going up.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'

Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility.

Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.

Be content to seem what you really are.

The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.

You are a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.

Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.