Marcus Aurelius Quotes

It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.

In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?

Without a purpose nothing should be done.

Time is a sort of river of passing events and strong is its current no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place and this too will be swept away.

Things of themselves cannot touch the soul at all. They have no entry to the soul, and cannot turn or move it. The soul alone turns and moves itself, making all externals presented to it cohere with the judgements it thinks worthy of itself.

You have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly in your judgement, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after dissolution are equally infinite.

Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?

A man's life is what his thoughts make it.

Think not so much of what you lack as of what you have: but of the things that you have, select the best, and then reflect on how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.

Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint.

Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

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

A man should always have these two rules in readiness. First, to do only what the reason of your ruling and legislating faculties suggest for the service of man. Second, to change your opinion whenever anyone at hand sets you right and unsettles you in an opinion, but this change of opinion should come only because you are persuaded that something is just or to the public advantage, not because it appears pleasant or increases your reputation.

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

Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.

That all is as thinking makes it so – and you control your thinking. So remove your judgements whenever you wish and then there is calm - as the sailor rounding the cape finds smooth water and the welcome of a waveless bay.

Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying anything that deserves to be despised.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.

Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.

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.

As far as you can, get into the habit of asking yourself in relation to any action taken by another: "What is his point of reference here?" But begin with yourself: examine yourself first.

Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.

If you are distressed by anything external the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?

The universe is flux, life is opinion.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility. . . .

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.