Marcus Aurelius Quotes

The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.

Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.

God overrules all mutinous accidents, brings them under His laws of fate, and makes them all serviceable to His purpose.

There is but one thing of real value - to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.

He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.

Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.

Your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.

Most of what we say and do is unnecessary: remove the superfluity, and you will have more time and less bother. So in every case one should prompt oneself: 'Is this, or is it not, something necessary?' And the removal of the unnecessary should apply not only to actions but to thoughts also: then no redundant actions either will follow.

It is a shame for the soul to be first to give way in this life, when thy body does not give way.

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.

Are you distracted by outward cares? Then allow yourself a space of quiet wherein you can add to your knowledge of the Good and learn to curb your restlessness. Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself.

If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from eternity?

From Apollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason.

Reflect often upon the rapidity with which all existing things, or things coming into existence, sweep past us and are carried away.

Stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.

You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.

Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.

Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.

Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before his moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus.

A lucky chance is constant in nothing but inconstancy.

Nature in no case cometh short of art, for the arts are copiers of natural forms.

Everything is but what we think it.

If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

So much worse are the consequences of anger than its causes.

Man is born for deeds of kindness.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?

A good man does not spy around for the black spots in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.

When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance revert at once to yourself and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help. You'll have a better grasp of harmony if you keep going back to it.

Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.

How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil.

If you separate from . . . everything you have done in the past, everything that disturbs you about the future . . . and apply yourself to living the life that you are living-that is to say, the present-you can live all the time that remains to you until your death in calm, benevolence, and serenity.

Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate.

Nothing is worth doing pointlessly.

I'm going to be meeting with people today who talk too much - people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won't be surprised or disturbed, for I can't imagine a world without such people.

It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self respect, to hate any person, to curse, to act the hypocrite.

Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.

Remind oneself continually of one of those who practiced virtue in days gone by.

What we do in life ripples in eternity.

Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.

Purge your mind of all aimless and idle thoughts, especially those that pry into the affairs of others or wish them ill.

The body of an actor can be either his best friend or his worst enemy.

How soon will time cover all things.

When pain is unbearable it destroys us; when it does not it is bearable.

He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.