In a world filled with constant noise and distraction, the timeless wisdom of the Stoics offers a refreshing sense of clarity and calm. Among them, Marcus Aurelius stands out not only as a Roman emperor but also as a profound philosopher. His meditations, written as personal reflections, have inspired generations seeking strength, purpose, and resilience. In this post, we’ll explore some of the most impactful Marcus Aurelius quotes, uncovering the deep truths behind his words and how they continue to guide us in today’s fast-paced world.
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor and philosopher who left behind a wealth of wisdom in his writings. Here are some of the best Marcus Aurelius quotes that offer insight into life, happiness, and inner peace.
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor who ruled from 161 to 180 AD. He was known for his philosophy of Stoicism, which emphasized the importance of self-control, reason, and virtue. His writings, known as the Meditations, are considered one of the greatest works of philosophy in the Western tradition.
Marcus Aurelius was born in 121 AD in Rome to a wealthy and influential family. He was educated by some of the most prominent philosophers of his time and was trained in the art of rhetoric and public speaking. At the age of 17, he was adopted by the emperor Antoninus Pius, who later made him his successor.
During his reign as emperor, Marcus Aurelius was known for his military campaigns against the Parthians and Germanic tribes. He also oversaw many public works projects, including the construction of roads and aqueducts, and he worked to improve the administration of justice.
Despite his many accomplishments as emperor, Marcus Aurelius is perhaps best known for his philosophy of Stoicism. He believed that individuals should focus on developing their inner strength and character, rather than seeking external rewards or pleasures. He emphasized the importance of reason and rationality in making decisions, and he believed that individuals should strive to live virtuous lives in accordance with nature.
The Meditations, Marcus Aurelius’s collection of personal writings, reflect these beliefs and provide insight into his inner thoughts and struggles. The work is divided into 12 books and covers a wide range of topics, from the nature of the universe to the importance of humility and gratitude.
Marcus Aurelius died in 180 AD while on a military campaign in the Danube region. He was succeeded by his son, Commodus, who was known for his cruelty and incompetence. Despite the shortcomings of his successor, Marcus Aurelius is remembered as one of the greatest Roman emperors and philosophers of all time.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes
1. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
2. You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
3. Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.
4. Be content with what you are, and wish not to change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.
5. Receive without pride, let go without attachment.
6. For God’s sake, stop honoring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.
7. Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.
8. Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.
9. Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.
10. Each of us needs what nature gives us when nature gives it.
11. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining.
12. Treat whatever happens as wholly natural; not novel or hard to deal with; but familiar and easily handled.
13. The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
14. 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… then make that day count.
15. Being attached to many things, we are weighed down and dragged along with them.
16. No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.
17. Objective judgment, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now at this very moment. Willing acceptance – now at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.
18. You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind – things that exist only there – and clear out space for yourself.
19. Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.
20. To live the good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.
21. Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.
22. 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.
23. A key point to bear in mind: The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.
24. Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.
25. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.
26. To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony.
27. Show me one person who cares how they act, someone for whom success is less important than the manner in which it is achieved. While out walking, who gives any thought to the act of walking itself? Who pays attention to the process of planning, not just the outcome?
28. Concentrate every minute like a Roman — like a man — on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions.
29. This is the mark of a perfect character – to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.
30. Labor willingly and diligently, undistracted and aware of the common interest.
31. Give yourself a gift: the present moment.
32. Discard your misperceptions. Stop being jerked like a puppet. Limit yourself to the present.
33. Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them.
34. The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
35. 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.
36. Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.
37. You have to assemble your life yourself – action by action.
38. If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.
39. You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.
40. Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.
41. Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?
42. Nothing that goes on in anyone else’s mind can harm you.
43. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
44. The most complete revenge is not to imitate the aggressor.
45. To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
46. It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.
47. Remember that there is a God who desires neither praise nor glory from men created in his image, but rather that they, guided by the understanding given them, should in their actions become like unto him.
48. Whosoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whosoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.
49. In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself.
50. Discard everything except these few truths: we can live only in the present moment, in this brief now; all the rest of our life is dead and buried or shrouded in uncertainty. Short is the life we lead, and small our patch of earth.
51. Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
52. No man is happy who does not think himself so.
53. Remember that all things are only opinion and that it is in your power to think as you please.
54. Failing to understand the workings of one’s own mind is bound to lead to unhappiness.
55. Why should anyone be afraid of change? What can take place without it? What can be more pleasing or more suitable to universal nature? Can you take your bath without the firewood undergoing a change? Can you eat without the food undergoing a change? And can anything useful be done without change? Don’t you see that for you to change is just the same, and is equally necessary for universal nature?
56. Does what’s happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforward ness, and all other qualities that allow a person’s nature to fulfill itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.
57. Love the people with whom fate brings you together
58. Nothing is evil which is according to nature.
59. A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.
60. Submit to the fate of your own free will.
61. A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.
62. Welcome every experience the looms of fate may weave for you.
63. How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
64. The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.
65. There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won’t hail the occasion with delight.
66. Purge your mind of all aimless and idle thoughts, especially those that pry into the affairs of others or wish them ill.
67. Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind.
68. The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly, And be patience with those who don’t.
69. Life is a stranger’s sojourn, a night at an inn.
70. Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.
71. How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.
72. Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.
73. How soon will time cover all things.
74. Live not one’s life as though one had a thousand years, but live each day as the last.
75. Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.
76. I seek the truth…it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.
77. Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of great relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are ONE.
78. All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.
79. 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.
80. My true Self is free. I cannot be contained.
81. 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.
82. 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.
83. The passing minute is every man’s equal possession but what has once gone by is not ours.
84. We are the other of the other.
85. There is no misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good fortune.
86. And yet, after all, what is posthumous fame? Altogether vanity.
87. I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.
88. That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.
89. Everything is but what we think it.
90. Short is the little which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain.
91. Life is short. That’s all there is to say. Get what you can from the present – thoughtfully, justly.
92. Receive the gifts of fortune without pride, and part with them without reluctance.
93. Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
94. The honest and good man ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.
95. The wrongdoer is often the person who left something undone, rather than the person who has done something.
96. To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief.
97. Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.
98. 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.
99. Men are born for each other’s sake, so either teach people or endure them.
100. 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.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes (101-200)
101. Infinity is a fathomless gulf, into which all things vanish.
102. 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.
103. People generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they would gladly overtop; so that truth and ceremony are two things.
104. The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. ‘The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.’
105. Get rid of the judgement … get rid of the ‘I am hurt,’ you are rid of the hurt itself.
106. 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.
107. The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
108. Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
109. It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities .
110. 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.
111. Do not expect Plato’s ideal republic; be satisfied with even the smallest step forward, and consider this no small achievement.
112. When men hate or blame you, or say hurtful things about you, look deeply into their hearts and see what kind of men they are. You’ll see how unnecessary it is to strain after their good opinion. Yet you must still think kindly of them. they are your neighbors. The gods help them as they do you, by dreams and oracles, to win their hearts’ desires.
113. Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life.
114. You are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.
115. Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee to break thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs walls and curtains.
116. When the sovereign spirit within us is true to nature, it stands poised and ready to adjust to every change in circumstances and to seize each new opportunity. It doesn’t approach an object with prejudice or preconception, but handles each thing dispassionately before embracing it and, if necessary, finds advantage in what opposes it. It is like fire in this regard. Whereas a feeble flame might suffocate under a pile of dry sticks, a robust fire consumes everything it touches. The more objects of any kind heaped on it, the higher it rises, the hotter it burns.
117. To live each day as though one’s last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing – here is the perfection of character.
118. Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure.
119. “Sweep me up and send me where you please.” For there I will retain my spirit, tranquil and content, as long as it can feel and act in harmony with its own nature. Is a change of place enough reason for my soul to become unhappy and worn, for me to become depressed, humbled, cowering, and afraid? Can you discover any reasons for this?
120. For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason.
121. The soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then, with a continuous series of such thoughts as these – that where a man can live, there – if he will – he can also live well.
122. Even while a thing is in the act of coming into existence, some part of it has already ceased to be.
123. Even the stoics agree that certainty is very hard to come at; that our assent is worth little, for where is infallibility to be found?
124. Death, like birth, is one of nature’s mysteries, the combining of primal elements and dissolving of the same into the same.
125. The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.
126. Neither in thy actions be sluggish nor in thy conversation without method, nor wandering in thy thoughts, nor let there be in thy soul inward contention nor external effusion, nor in life be so busy as to have no leisure.
127. Always follow these two rules: first, act only on what your reasoning mind proposes for the good of humanity, and second, change your opinion if someone shows you it’s wrong. This change of mind must proceed only from the conviction that it’s both correct and for the common good, but not because it will give you pleasure and make you popular.
128. Glory arrives too late when it comes only to one’s ashes
129. Gluttony and drunkenness have two evils attendant on them; they make the carcass smart, as well as the pocket.
130. For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his? So remember these two points: first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
131. People find pressure in different ways. I find it in keeping my mind clear. In not turning away from people or the things that happen to them. In accepting and welcoming everything I see. In treating each thing as it deserves.
132. Do what nature now requires. Set thyself in motion, if it is in thy power, and do not look about thee to see if any one will observe it; nor yet expect Plato’s Republic: but be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event to be no small matter.
133. Outward objects cannot take hold of the soul, nor force their passage into her, nor set any of her wheels going. No, the impression comes from herself, and it is her own motions which affect her. As for the contingencies of fortune, they are either great or little, according to the opinion she has of her own strength.
134. The one thing worth living for is to keep one’s soul pure.
135. Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the emerald were always saying this: “Whatever any one does or says, I must still be emerald, and keep my color.
136. A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.
137. The nature of the All moved to make the universe.
138. The gods have provided me with clear and compelling signs of what it means to live in conformity to nature. They did their part. So far as their gifts, aid, and inspiration are concerned, nothing prevented me from following the path prescribed by nature. If from time to time I have strayed from this path, the fault lies with me and with my failure to heed the gods’ signs, or rather, their explicit instructions.
139. Praise adds nothing to beauty–makes it neither better nor worse.
140. He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different kind of sensation. But if thou shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou feel any harm; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensation, thou wilt be a different kind of living being and thou wilt not cease to live.
141. No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.
142. 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.
143. A man is a little soul carrying around a courpse.
144. All that is from the gods is full of Providence.
145. Suppose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural unity… yet here there is this beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut asunder, to come together again. …he has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be separated at all from the universal …he has allowed him to be returned and to be united and to resume his place as a part.
146. Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
147. In man’s life, time is but a moment; being, a flux; sense is dim; the material frame corruptible; soul, an eddy of breath; fortune a thing inscrutable, and fame precarious.
148. So you know how things stand. Now forget what they think of you. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Focus on that, and don’t let anything distract you. You’ve wandered all over and finally realized that you never found what you were after: how to live. Not in syllogisms, not in money, or fame, or self-indulgence. Nowhere.
149. To them that ask: Where hast thou seen the Gods, or how knowest thou certainly that there be Gods, that thou art so devout in their worship? I answer: Neither have I seen my own soul, and yet I respect and honor it.
150. 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.
151. Remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment.
152. 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; and to be always the same, in sharp pains, on the occasion of the loss of a child, and in long illness.
153. As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.
154. I bless the gods for not letting my education in rhetoric, poetry, and other literary studies come easily to me, and thereby sparing me from an absorbing interest in these subjects.
155. The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
156. Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.
157. The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.
158. Because a thing is difficult for you, do not therefore suppose it to be beyond mortal power. On the contrary, if anything is possible and proper for man to do, assume that it must fall within your own capacity.
159. 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.
160. As thou thyself art a component part of a social system, so let every act of thine be a component part of social life. Whatever act of thine that has no reference, either immediately or remotely, to a social end, this tears asunder thy life, and does not allow it to be one, and it is of the nature of a mutiny, just as when in a popular assembly a man acting by himself stands apart from the general agreement.
161. A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all – that is myself.
162. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.
163. No one can lose either the past or the future – how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess? … It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.
164. As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.
165. If any man has done wrong, the harm is his own. But perhaps he has not done wrong.
166. Depart then satisfied, for he also who releases thee is satisfied.
167. 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.
168. What use do I put my soul to? It is a serviceable question this, and should frequently be put to oneself. How does my ruling part stand affected? And whose soul have I now? That of a child, or a young man, or a feeble woman, or of a tyrant, of cattle or wild beasts.
169. When thou art offended at any man’s fault, forthwith turn to thyself and reflect in what manner thou doest error thyself. For by attending to this thou wilt quickly forget thy anger, if this consideration is also added, that the man is compelled; for what else could he do? or, if thou art able, take away from him the compulsion.
170. When forced, as it seems, by your environment to be utterly disquieted, return with all speed into your self, staying in discord no longer than you must. By constant recurrence to the harmony, you will gain more command over it.
171. 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.’
172. Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.
173. Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.
174. In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.
175. Everything is born from change. …there is nothing nature loves more that to alter what exists and make new things like it. All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the one that make plants and children? Go deeper.
176. Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing else than a mixture and dispersion. Why, then, art thou disturbed? Say to this ruling faculty, Art thou dead, art thou corrupted, art thou playing the hypocrite, art thou become a beast, dost thou herd and feed with the rest?
177. Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop doing such good.
178. Let thy chief fort and place of defense be a mind free from passions. A stronger place and better fortified than this, hath no man.
179. Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of the things which thou hast, select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however, take care that thou dost not, through being so pleased with them, accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou shouldst not have them.
180. 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.
181. Don’t let your imagination to be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to pictures everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand. …Then remind yourself that past and present have no power over you. Only the present.
182. The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it – either gratefully better than or bitterly worse than something else that you alone choose.
183. Let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.
184. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
185. The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
186. What we do in life ripples in eternity.
187. Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
188. A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.
189. A person’s worth is measured by the worth of what he values.
190. 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.
191. The inner master, when confronted with an obstacle, uses it as fuel, like a fire which consumes things that are thrown into it. A small lamp would be snuffed out, but a big fire will engulf what is thrown at it and burn hotter; it consumes the obstacle and uses it to reach a higher level.
192. The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.
193. A man’s true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent self-examinations, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not that which he thinks and says and does.
194. A person’s life is dyed with the color of his imagination.
195. To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.
196. I cannot comprehend how any man can want anything but the truth.
197. External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.
198. Poverty is the mother of crime.
199. Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.
200. The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That’s all you need to know.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes (201-300)
201. Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.
202. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
203. The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.
204. Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.
205. 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.
206. Do not be ashamed of help.
207. If it’s in your control, why do you do it? If it’s in someone else’s control, then who are you blaming? Atoms? The gods? Stupid either way. Blame no one. Set people straight, if you can. If not, just repair the damage.
208. If you are distressed by something, it is due to your own estimate of it; and you have the power to change it at will.
209. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
210. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
211. In an expression of true gratitude, sadness is conspicuous only by its absence
212. All things fade and quickly turn to myth.
213. To expect an impossibility is madness.
214. Take away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed,’ and the harm is taken away.
215. ”Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial
216. Whatever may happen to you was prepared for you from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of your being.
217. Never act without purpose and resolve, or without the means to finish the job.
218. The greatest part of what we say and do is really unnecessary. If a man takes this to heart, he will have more leisure and less uneasiness.
219. It is a sin to persue pleasure as a good and to avoid pain as a evil.
220. Put it out of the power of truth to give you an ill character. If anybody reports you not to be an honest man let your practice give him the lie.
221. Everything is mere opinion.
222. Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be, become one yourself!
223. Our life is what our thoughts make it. Do every act of your life as if it were your last. In a word, your life is short. You must make the most of the present with the aid of reason and justice. Since it is possible that you may be quitting life this very moment, govern every act and thought accordingly.
224. Change your attitude to the things that bother you and you will be aware of them.
225. Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.
226. Anger cannot be dishonest.
227. Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
228. Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
229. Letting go all else, cling to the following few truths. Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant: all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth; and little, too, is the longest fame to come – dependent as it is on a succession of fast-perishing little men who have no knowledge even of their own selves, much less of one long dead and gone.
230. The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
231. Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.
232. Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
233. Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
234. It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.
235. All is ephemeral – fame and the famous as well.
236. You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.
237. A spider is proud when it has caught a fly; one man when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians. Are not these robbers, if you examine their opinions?
238. It is not the body, nor the personality that is the true self. The true self is eternal. Even on the point of death we can say to ourselves, “my true self is free. I cannot be contained.”
239. Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
240. Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.
241. Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.
242. 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.
243. All things are the same, familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.
244. 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.
245. Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.
246. 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.
247. The stone that is thrown into the air is none the worse for falling down, and none the better for going up.
248. We are born for cooperation, as are the feet, the hands, the eyelids, and the upper and lower jaws.
249. 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.
250. Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest been lived already, or is impossible to see. The span we live is small – small as the corner of the earth in which we live it.
251. You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves.
252. Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.
253. Which is recorded of Socrates, that he was able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul.
254. All things are in the act of change; thou thyself in ceaseless transformation and partial decay, and the whole universe with thee.
255. Persuade me or prove to me that I am mistaken in thought or deed, and I will gladly change – for it is the truth I seek, and the truth never harmed anyone. Harm comes from persisting in error and clinging to ignorance.
256. If you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.
257. A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
258. The gods sustain and guide all their works.
259. Leave other people’s mistakes where they lie.
260. Do you see what little is required of a man to live a well-tempered and god-fearing life? Obey these precepts, and the gods will ask nothing more.
261. Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate.
262. Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear. The same things happen to another, and either because he does not see that they have happened or because he would show a great spirit he is firm and remains unharmed. It is a shame then that ignorance and conceit should be stronger than wisdom.
263. But that which is useful is the better.
264. The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
265. 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.
266. Where a man can live, he can also live well.
267. 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.
268. Everything that happens either happens in such a way as you are formed by nature to bear it, or as you are not formed by nature to bear it.
269. Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
270. The best sort of revenue is not to be like him who did the injury.
271. From Plato: the man who has an elevated mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, dost thou suppose it possible for him to think that human life is anything great? It is not possible, he said. Such a man then will think that death also is no evil.
272. Consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man’s life is only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead.
273. Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.
274. This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole.
275. Death hangs over thee, While thou still live, while thou may, do good.
276. No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.
277. If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common. If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left undone is common. If this be so, law also is common; if this be so, we are citizens; if this be so, we are partakers in one constitution; if this be so, the Universe is a kind of Commonwealth.
278. It is not the weight of the future or the past that is pressing upon you, but ever that of the present alone. Even this burden, too, can be lessened if you confine it strictly to its own limits.
279. Look at everything that exists, and observe that it is already in dissolution and in change, and as it were putrefaction or dispersion, or that everything is so constituted by nature as to die.
280. The body of an actor can be either his best friend or his worst enemy.
281. Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.
282. Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.
283. We must press on then, in haste; not simply because every hour brings us nearer to death, but because even before then our powers of perception and comprehension begin to deteriorate.
284. Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
285. And in the case of superior things like stars, we discover a kind of unity in separation. The higher we rise on the scale of being, the easier it is to discern a connection even among things separated by vast distances.
286. A rational nature admits of nothing but what is serviceable to the rest of mankind.
287. The gods gave me a father who ruled over me and rid me of any trace of arrogance and showed me that one can live in a palace without bodyguards, extravagant attire, chandeliers, statues, and other luxuries. He taught me that it is possible to live instead pretty much in the manner of a private citizen without losing any of the dignity and authority a ruler must possess to discharge his imperial duties effectively.
288. If it’s time for you to go, leave willingly – as you would to accomplish anything that can be done with grace and honor.
289. “No state sorrier than that of the man who keeps up a continual round, and pries into “”the secrets of the nether world,”” as saith the poet, and is curious in conjecture of what is in his
neighbour’s heart.”
290. Yet living and dying, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, and so forth are equally the lot of good men and bad. Things like these neither elevate nor degrade; and therefore they are no more good than they are evil.
291. Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks. Why art thou disturbed? What is there new in this? What unsettles thee? Is it the form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? Look at it. But besides these there is nothing. Towards the gods, then, now become at last more simple and better. It is the same whether we examine these things for a hundred years or three.
292. A man’s happiness,-to do the things proper to man.
293. Cinna wishes to seem poor, and is poor
294. You exist but as a part inherent in a greater whole. Do not live as though you had a thousand years before you. The common due impends; while you live, and while you may, be good.
295. Above, below, all around are the movements of the elements. But the motion of virtue is in none of these: it is something more divine, and advancing by a way hardly observed it goes happily on its road.
296. On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.
297. 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.
298. A good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine.
299. Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.
300. That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes (301-400)
301. He who flies from his master is a runaway; but the law is master, and he who breaks the law is a runaway. And he also who is grieved or angry or afraid, is dissatisfied because something has been or is or shall be of the things which are appointed by Him who rules all things, and He is Law, and assigns to every man what is fit. He then who fears or is grieved or is angry is a runaway.
302. Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful – and hence neither good nor bad.
303. Remember that even if you were to live for three thousand years, or thirty thousand, you could not lose any other life than the one you have, and there will be no other life after it. So the longest and the shortest lives are the same. The present moment is shared by all living creatures, but the time that is past is gone forever. No one can lose the past or the future, for if they don’t belong to you, how can they be taken from you?
304. God sees the minds (ruling principles) of all men bared of the material vesture and rind and impurities. For with his intellectual part alone he touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived from himself into these bodies. And if thou also usest thyself to do this, thou wilt rid thyself of thy much trouble. For he who regards not the poor flesh which envelops him, surely will not trouble himself by looking after raiment and dwelling and fame and such like externals and show.
305. Every soul, the philosopher says, is involuntarily deprived of truth; consequently in the same way it is deprived of justice and temperance and benevolence and everything of the kind. It is most necessary to keep this in mind, for thus thou wilt be more gentle towards all.
306. The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.
307. Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on the moutains . . . But all this is unphilosophical to the last degree . . . when thou canst at a moment’s notice retire into thyself.
308. Embellish the soul with simplicity, with prudence, and everything which is neither virtuous nor vicious. Love all men. Walk according to God; for, as a poet hath said, his laws govern all.
309. Think of all the years passed by in which you said to yourself “I’ll do it tomorrow,” and how the gods have again and again granted you periods of grace of which you have not availed yourself. It is time to realize that you are a member of the Universe, that you are born of Nature itself, and to know that a limit has been set to your time. Use every moment wisely, to perceive your inner refulgence, or ’twill be gone and nevermore within your reach.
310. Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.
311. Both happiness and unhappiness depend on perception
312. It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
313. Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?
314. Whoever values peace of mind and the health of the soul will live the best of all possible lives.
315. What does not benefit the hive is no benefit to the bee.
316. “So much worse are the consequences of anger than its causes.
So much worse are the consequences of anger than its causes.”
317. If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. It is in your power to erase this judgment about it. If anything in your own nature gives you pain, you are who hinders you from correcting your opinion.
318. Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.
319. The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.
320. All things are linked with one another, and this oneness is sacred; there is nothing that is not interconnected with everything else. For things are interdependent, and they combine to form this universal order. There is only one universe made up of all things, and one creator who pervades them; there is one substance and one law, namely, common reason in all thinking creatures, and all truth is one-if, as we believe, there is only one path of perfection for all beings who share the same mind.
321. Confine yourself to the present.
322. Nothing is worth doing pointlessly.
323. Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason.
324. Without a purpose, nothing should be done.
325. Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
326. Withdraw to the untroubled quietude deep within the soul, and refresh yourself.
327. …the infallible man does not exist.
328. If you do the task before you always adhering to strict reason with zeal and energy and yet with humanity, disregarding all lesser ends and keeping the divinity within you pure and upright, as though you were even now faced with its recall – if you hold steadily to this, staying for nothing and shrinking from nothing, only seeking in each passing action a conformity with nature and in each word and utterance a fearless truthfulness, then the good life shall be yours. And from this course no man has the power to hold you back.
329. Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it–turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself, so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.
330. “Nature has given to each conscious being every power she possesses, and one of these abilities is this: just as Nature converts and alters every obstacle and opposition, and fits them into their predestined place, making them a part of herself, so too the rational person is able to finesse every obstacle into an opportunity, and to use it for whatever purpose it may suit.”
331. If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.
332. Stop whatever you’re doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won’t be able to do this anymore?
333. Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.
334. Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.
335. Be cheerful, also, and seek not external help, nor the peace which others give. A man must stand straight, and not be kept straight by others.
336. 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.
337. Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.
338. We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.
339. The universe is a single life comprising one substance and one soul.
340. A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.
341. Take me and cast me where you will; I shall still be possessor of the divinity within me, serene and content.
342. Snow endures but for a season, and joy comes with the morning.
343. Consider how many do not even know your name, and how many will soon forget it, and how those who now praise you will presently blame you.
344. No one wearies of benefits received.
345. That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.
346. A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission.
347. There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.
348. But if anything in thy own dispositiongives thee pain, who hinders thee from correcting thy opinion? And even if thou art pained because thou art not doing some particular thing which seems to thee to be right, why dost thou not rather act than complain?- But some insuperable obstacle is in the way?- Do not be grieved then, for the cause of its not being done depends not on thee.- But it is not worth while to live if this cannot be done.- Take thy departure then from life contentedly, just as he dies who is in full activity, and well pleased too with the things which are obstacles.
349. Do not act as if you had a thousand years to live.
350. How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.
351. Failure to read what is happening in another’s soul is not easily seen as a cause of unhappiness: but those who fail to attend the motions of their own soul are necessarily unhappy.
352. Run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something: the most famous, the most unfortunate, the most hated, the most whatever: Where is all that now? Smoke, dust, legend…or not even a legend. Think of all the examples. And how trivial the things we want so passionately are.
353. Always run to the short way; and the short way is the natural: accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason. For such a purpose frees a man from trouble, and warfare, and all artifice and ostentatious display.
354. Look deep into the hearts of men, and see what delights and disgusts the wise.
355. Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.
356. 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.
357. Observe and contemplate on the hidden things of life: how a man’s seed is but the beginning, it takes others to bring it to fruition. Think how food undergoes such changes to produce health and strength. See the power of these hidden things which, like the wind cannot been seen, but its effects can be.
358. No one can keep you from living as your nature requires. Nothings can happen to you that is not required by Nature.
359. Give full attention and devotion to each act.
360. It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.
361. There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen.
362. One whose chief regard is for his own mind, and for the divinity within him and the service of its goodness, will strike no poses, utter no complaints, and crave neither for solitude nor yet for a crowd. Best of all, his life will be free from continual pursuing and avoiding.
363. Within ten days thou wilt seem a god to those to whom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou wilt return to thy principles and the worship of reason.
364. If souls survive death for all eternity, how can the heavens hold them all? Or for that matter, how can the earth hold all the bodies that have been buried in it? The answers are the same. Just as on earth, with the passage of time, decaying and transmogrified corpses make way for the newly dead, so souls released into the heavens, after a season of flight, begin to break up, burn, and be absorbed back into the womb of reason, leaving room for souls just beginning to fly. This is the answer for those who believe that souls survive death.
365. If the gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for it.
366. What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.
367. Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.
368. Were you to live three thousand years, or even thirty thousand, remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment; and furthermore, that he can have no other life except the one he loses.
369. After all, what does fame everlasting mean? Mere vanity.
370. Do not suffer a sudden impression to overbear your judgment.
371. For any particular thing, ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature?
372. “Adorn thyself with simplicity and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God. The poet says that Law rules all. And it is enough to
remember that law rules all.”
373. In the same degree in which a man’s mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength.
374. There is a limit circumscribed to your time – if you do not use it to clear away your clouds, it will be gone, and you will be gone, and the opportunity will not return.
375. 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.
376. Give your heart to the trade you have learnt, and draw refreshment from it. Let the rest of your days be spent as one who has whole-heartedly committed his all to the gods and is thenceforth no man’s master or slave.
377. The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it
378. “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.”
379. Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendour until it is extinguished; and shall the truth which is in thee and justice and temperance be extinguished before thy death?
380. Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.
381. 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.
382. Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of this.
383. The things… which are proper to the understanding no other man is used to impede, for neither fire, nor iron, nor tyrant, nor abuse, touches it in any way. When it has been made a sphere, it continues a sphere.
384. But if we judge only those things which are in our power to be good or bad, there remains no reason either for finding fault with God or standing in a hostile attitude to man.
385. 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.
386. It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men’s badness, which is impossible.
387. Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
388. Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light or look the world in the face.
389. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you choose to retire into yourself.
390. The mind in itself wants nothing, unless it creates a want for itself; therefore it is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not perturb and impede itself.
391. 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.
392. The stream of tendency in which all things seek to fulfill the law of their being.
393. If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, ‘I awake to do the work of a man.
394. 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.
395. When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man’s life.
396. All things change, and you yourself are constantly wasting away. So also is the universe.
397. In death, Alexander of Macedon’s end differed no whit from his stable-boy’s. Either both were received into the same generative principle of the universe, or both alike were dispersed into atoms.
398. 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.
399. I consist of a little body and a soul.
400. 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?
Marcus Aurelius Quotes (401-500)
401. Either an ordered Universe or a medley heaped together mechanically but still an order; or can order subsist in you and disorder in the Whole! And that, too, when all things are so distinguished and yet intermingled and sympathetic.
402. A little time, and thou shalt close thy eyes; and him who has attended thee to thy grave, another soon will lament.
403. Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible; life in a palace is possible; therefore even in a palace a right life is possible.
404. Thanks to the gods I didn’t spend much time while growing up with my grandfather’s mistress and preserved the flower of my youth, waiting for the proper time to demonstrate my virility.
405. They know not how many things are signified by the words stealing, sowing, buying, keeping quiet, seeing what ought to be done; for this is not effected by the eyes, but by another kind of vision.
406. 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.
407. If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
408. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
409. If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
410. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
411. Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.
412. Nothing befalls any man which he is not fitted to endure.
413. Always bear this in mind, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.
414. When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one’s energy, that one’s modesty, another’s generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re practically showered with them. It’s good to keep this in mind.
415. When you are annoyed at someone’s mistake, immediately look at yourself and reflect how you also fail; for example, in thinking that good equals money, or pleasure, or a bit of fame. By being mindful of this you’ll quickly forget your anger, especially if you realize that the person was under stress, and could do little else. And, if you can, find a way to alleviate that stress.
416. Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
417. I am an old man and have had many worries, but most have never come to pass.
418. “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”
419. Everything that happens, happens as it should.
420. When you are offended at anyone’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. By attending to them, you will forget your anger and learn to live wisely.
421. 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.
422. Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.
423. If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance.
424. Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.
425. Do what you will. Even if you tear yourself apart, most people will continue doing the same things.
426. The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
427. He that lives alone lives in danger; society avoids many dangers.
428. The healthy eye ought to see all visible things and not to say, I wish for green things; for this is the condition of a diseased eye.
429. Receive without conceit, release without struggle.
430. Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.
431. Find joy in simplicity, self-respect, and indifference to what lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race. Follow the divine.
432. When pain is unbearable it destroys us; when it does not it is bearable.
433. Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.
434. The sinner sins against himself; the wrongdoer wrongs himself, becoming the worse by his own action.
435. A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.
436. It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.
437. How very near us stand the two vast gulfs of time, the past and the future, in which all things disappear.
438. Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of Lamiae, bugbears to frighten children.
439. Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to.
440. The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything!
441. Let no act be done without purpose.
442. The universe is in change, life is an opinion.
443. I, who have never willfully pained another, have no business to pain myself.
444. Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
445. Dress not thy thoughts in too fine a raiment. And be not a man of superfluous words or superfluous deeds.
446. Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it…. Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
447. It is within our power not to make a judgement about something, and so not disturb our minds; for nothing in itself possesses the power to form our judgements.
448. Don’t go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
449. Just consider, my friend, whether a pure spirit and virtue are anything other than saving your life and being saved. Perhaps we need to discard the idea of longevity and cease loving this life, instead committing these things to God and, believing that no one ever escapes destiny, to consider, with that in mind, how we may live the best possible life in the time that remains.
450. Take it that you have died today, and your life’s story is ended; and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.
451. Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.
452. Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.
453. That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.
454. Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too – ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring earth.
455. How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long been dead.
456. All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.
457. Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
458. Take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
459. Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance, and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a fig, and as to time the turning of a gimlet.
460. What matter and opportunity [for thy activity] art thou avoiding? For what else are all these things, except exercises for the reason, when it has viewed carefully and by examination into their nature the things which happen in life? Persevere then until thou shalt have made these things thy own, as the stomach which is strengthened makes all things its own, as the blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.
461. He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form.
462. My being consists of matter and form, that is, of soul and body; annihilation will reach neither of them, for they were never produced out of nothing. The consequence is, that every part of me will serve to make something in the world; and this again will change into another part through an infinite succession of change. This constant method of alteration gave me my being, and my father before me, and so on to eternity backward: for I think I may speak thus, even though the world be confined within certain determinate periods.
463. “I fit be a thing external that causes thy grief, know, that it is not that properly that doth cause it, but thine own conceit and opinion concerning the thing: which thou mayest rid thyself of, when thou wilt.”
464. When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic-what defines a human being-is to work with others.
465. “This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole,
and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what
kind of a part it is of what kind of a whole; and that there is no one
who hinders thee from always doing and saying the things which are
according to the nature of which thou art a part.”
466. Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.
467. From Alexander the Platonic, not frequently nor without necessity to say to any one, or to write in a letter, that I have no leisure; nor continually to excuse the neglect of duties required by our relation to those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occupations.
468. One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth.
469. There are three relations [between thee and other things]: the one to the body which surrounds thee; the second to the divine cause from which all things come to all; and the third to those who live with thee.
470. Now departure from the world of men is nothing to fear, if gods exist: because they would not involve you in any harm. If they do not exist, or if they have no care for humankind, then what is life to me in a world devoid of gods, or devoid of providence? But they do exist, and they do care for humankind: and they have put it absolutely in man’s power to avoid falling into the true kinds of harm.
471. It is not the actions of others which trouble us (for those actions are controlled by their governing part), but rather it is our own judgments. Therefore remove those judgments and resolve to let go of your anger, and it will already be gone. How do you let go? By realizing that such actions are not shameful to you.
472. From my grandfather’s father, I learned to dispense with attendance at public schools, and to enjoy good teachers at home, and to recognize that on such things money should be eagerly spent.
473. Wherever a man lives, he may live well.
474. Think on this doctrine, – that reasoning beings were created for one another’s sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it.
475. Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
476. It were well to die if there be gods, and sad to live if there be none.
477. As the same fire assumes different shapes When it consumes objects differing in shape, So does the one Self take the shape Of every creature in whom he is present.
478. The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now molds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else.
479. Find time still to be learning somewhat good, and give up being desultory.
480. Think of the universal substance, of which thou has a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art
481. Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not even here do all agree, no, not any one with himself: and the whole earth too is a point.
482. Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and ay, ‘Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?’
483. The true joy of humankind is in doing that which is most proper to our nature; and the first property of people is to be kindly affected towards them that are of one kind with ourselves.
484. I will march on in the path of nature till my legs sink under me, and then I shall be at rest, and expire into that air which has given me my daily breath.
485. …small too even the longest fame thereafter, which is itself subject to a succession of little men who quickly die, and have no knowledge of themselves, let alone of those long dead.
486. Do not be wise in words – be wise in deeds.
487. Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’
488. 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.
489. No one was ever injured by the truth; but he who persists in self-deception and ignorance is injured.
490. Your life is an expression of all your thoughts.
491. Your task is to stand straight; not to be held straight.
492. Past and future have no power over you. Just the present – and even that can be minimized.
493. One of the recurring themes in Marcus’ handbook is leadership’s responsibility to work intelligently with what it is given and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.
494. The man who has a house everywhere has a home nowhere
495. The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
496. Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe. .. We should not say ‘I am an Athenian’ or ‘I am a Roman’ but ‘I am a citizen of the Universe.
497. The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.
498. God sees the inner spirit stripped of flesh, skin, and all debris. For his own mind only touches the spirit that he has allowed to flow from himself into our bodies. And if you can act the same way, you will rid yourself of all suffering. For surely if you are not preoccupied with the body that encloses you, you will not trouble yourself about clothes, houses, fame, and other showy trappings.
499. A person’s life is what their thoughts make it.
500. Remember that all is opinion.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes (501-600)
501. Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.
502. A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.
503. It’s normal to feel pain in your hands and feet, if you’re using your feet as feet and your hands as hands. And for a human being to feel stress is normal – if he’s living a normal life. And if it’s normal, how can it be bad?
504. We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one’s back is counterproductive.
505. It is possible to depart from life at this moment. Have this thought in mind whenever you act, speak, or think.
506. Body. Soul. Mind. Sensations: the body. Desires: the soul. Reasoning: the mind.
507. I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.
508. Today I escaped all circumstance, or rather I cast out all circumstance, for it was not outside me, but within my judgements.
509. A great estate is a great disadvantage to those who do not know how to use it, for nothing is more common than to see wealthy persons live scandalously and miserably; riches do them no service in order to virtue and happiness; therefore ’tis precept and principle, not an estate, that makes a man good for something.
510. “Leave the wrong done by another where the wrong arose.
Leave the wrong done by another where the wrong arose.”
511. Live with the gods. And he does so who constantly shows them that his soul is satisfied with what is assigned to him.
512. All is as thinking makes it so.
513. Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
514. …the sole thing of which any man can be deprived is the present; since this is all he owns, and nobody can lose what is not his.
515. Consider, for example, and you will find that almost all the transactions in the time of Vespasian differed little from those of the present day. You there find marrying and giving in marriage, educating children, sickness, death, war, joyous holidays, traffic, agriculture, flatterers, insolent pride, suspicions, laying of plots, longing for the death of others, newsmongers, lovers, misers, men canvassing far the consulship and for the kingdom; yet all these passed away, and are nowhere.
516. When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, make this short speech to yourself: I am getting up now to do the business of a man; and am I out of humour for going about that I was made for, and for the sake of which I was sent into the world? Was I then designed for nothing but to doze and keep warm beneath the counterpane? Well! but this is a comfortable way of living.
517. Let every action aim solely at the common good.
518. Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
519. The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.
520. Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them.
521. Life is a campaign, a brief staying in a strange region.
522. Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle…
523. The earth loveth the shower,” and “the holy æther knoweth what love is.” The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.
524. Does a man shrink from change? Why, what can come into being save by change?
525. If any man should conceive certain things as being really good, such as prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, he would not after having first conceived these endure to listen to anything which should not be in harmony with what is really good.
526. Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied, if thou dost not succeed in doing everything according to right principles; but when thou bast failed, return back again, and be content if the greater part of what thou doest is consistent with man’s nature, and love this to which thou returnest
527. Be mindful at all times of the following: the nature of the whole universe, the nature of the part that is me, the relation of the one to the other, the one so vast, the other so small.
528. Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging.
529. Enter others’ minds and let them enter yours.
530. 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.
531. Search men’s governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.
532. Am I doing anything? I do it with reference to the good of mankind. Does anything happen to me? I receive it and refer it to the gods, and the source of all things, from which all that happens is derived.
533. Remind oneself continually of one of those who practiced virtue in days gone by.
534. … Allow yourself a space of quiet, wherein you can add to your knowledge of the Good and learn to curb your restlessness. Guard also against another kind of error: the folly of those who weary their days in much business, but lack any aim on which their whole effort, nay, their whole thought, is focused.
535. If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from eternity?
536. Why should any of these things that happen externally distract thee? Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing: cease roving to and fro.
537. As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
538. The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.
539. 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.
540. Reflect frequently upon the instability of things, and how very fast the scenes of nature are shifted. Matter is in perpetual flux. Change is always and everywhere at work; it strikes through causes and effects, and leaves nothing fixed and permanent.
541. Spend your brief moment according to nature’s law, and serenely greet the journey’s end as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing the branch that bare it, and giving thanks to the tree that gave it life.
542. Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the Cynic Monimus is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what was said, if a man receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.
543. Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things which come from the external cause; and let there be justice in the things done by virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be movement and action terminating in this, in social acts, for this is according to thy nature.
544. My city and state are Rome. But as a human being? The world. So for me, “good” can only mean what’s good for both communities.
545. And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Do you not see then that for yourself also to change is just the same, and equally necessary for the universal nature?
546. Not even the vicissitudes of fortune are contrary to nature or to the providential ordering of the universe. It all flows from the gods, who determine what is needed for the welfare of the whole universe, of which you are a part.
547. Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear?
548. Rememberest the gods, and that they wish not to be flattered, but wish all reasonable beings to be made like themselves; and… rememberest that what does the work of a fig-tree is a fig-tree, and that what does the work of a dog is a dog, and that what does the work of a bee is a bee, and that what does the work of a man is a man.
549. You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.
550. Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together.
551. Adapt yourself to the life you have been given; and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you.
552. 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.
553. Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about.
554. It doesn’t hurt me unless I interpret its happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to.
555. If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
556. Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
557. He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
558. Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.
559. Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about. If it is good to say or do something, then it is even better to be criticized for having said or done it.
560. It is the duty of men to love even those who injure them.
561. Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul.
562. Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.
563. Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
564. He who eats my bread, does my will.
565. There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.
566. It is man’s peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.
567. Observe constantly that all things take place by change.
568. How powerful is man! He is able to do all that God wishes him to do. He is able to accept all that God sends upon him.
569. 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.
570. Truth and ceremony are two things.
571. He does not write at all whose poems no man reads.
572. Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.
573. Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.
574. Suppose that men kill thee, cut thee in pieces, curse thee, what can these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure, wise, sober, just?
575. Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence? But Gods there are, undoubtedly, and they regard human affairs; and have put it wholly in our power, that we should not fall into what is truly evil.
576. All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.
577. Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people’s actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.
578. From the philosopher Catulus, never to be dismissive of a friend’s accusation, even if it seems unreasonable, but to make every effort to restore the relationship to its normal condition.
579. He that dies in extreme old age will be reduced to the same state with him that is cut down untimely.
580. If man reflects on the changes and transformations which follow one another like wave after wave and their rapidity, he will despise everything which is perishable.
581. A man should be upright, not kept upright.
582. In the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that the pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bear in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination.
583. All things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare, and a visit to a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion.
584. The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer.
585. Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature?
586. Consider frequently the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For things are somehow implicated with one another, and all in a way friendly to one another.
587. Thou sufferest justly: for thou choosest rather to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day.
588. The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
589. All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in circle.
590. Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse.
591. Not to waste time on nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it. Not to be obsessed with quail-fighting or other crazes like that.
592. Because your own strength is unequal to a task, do not assume it is beyond the powers of man.
593. I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed.
594. When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, endeavor to rouse your faculties, and act up to your kind, and consider that you have to do the business of a man; and that action is both beneficial and the end of your being.
595. All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.
596. The ruling power within, when it is in its natural state, is so related to outer circumstances that it easily changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do.
597. Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone – those that are now, and those to come. Existence flows past us like a river; the “what” is in constant flux, the “why” has a thousand variations. Nothing is stable, not even what’s right here. The infinity of past and future gapes before us – a chasm whose depths we cannot see.
598. Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.
599. Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
600. Live your life as if you are ready to say goodbye to it at any moment, as if the time left for you were some pleasant surprise.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes (601-700)
601. Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.
602. 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.
603. Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their mind.
604. It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.
605. Every man’s life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.
606. A good man does not spy around for the black spots in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.
607. Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.
608. Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not assemble in your mind the many and varied troubles which have come to you in the past and will come again in the future, but ask yourself with regard to every present difficulty: ‘What is there in this that is unbearable and beyond endurance?’
609. He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.
610. 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. . . .
611. Your manners will depend very much upon the quality of what you frequently think on; for the soul is as it were tinged with the colour and complexion of thought.
612. Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity.
613. Life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.
614. How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil.
615. Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.
616. If anyone can refute me-show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective-I’l l gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
617. God overrules all mutinous accidents, brings them under His laws of fate, and makes them all serviceable to His purpose.
618. You are a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.
619. All those [events in history] were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.
620. Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute in your devotion to duty.
621. Let goodness go with the doing.
622. 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.
623. …if a man comes to his fortieth year, and has any understanding at all, he has virtually seen – thanks to their similarity – all possible happenings, both past and to come.
624. He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.
625. Thou seest how few be the things, the which if a man has at his command his life flows gently on and is divine.
626. 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.
627. Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life, – there, if one must speak out, the real man.
628. Unhappy am I because this has happened to me.- Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.
629. No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.
630. Thou mayest foresee… the things which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of things now: accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years.
631. All that is not eternal is eternally out of date. C. S. LEWIS, The Four Loves Life is short. Eternity is long. BENTLEY LITTLE, His Father’s Son What we do now echoes in eternity.
632. Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? Art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul?
633. To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.
634. As for literature, thefts cannot harm it, while the lapse of ages augments its value
635. That which had grown from the earth, to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns. This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.
636. Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm and trepidation of the town mouse.
637. Every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution; and all other things have been constituted for the sake of the superior, but the rational for the sake of one another.
638. 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?
639. If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness, and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it? And what is the harm to the common weal?
640. Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
641. The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.
642. Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.
643. How can a man find a sensible way to live? One way and one only- Philosophy. And my philosophy means keeping that vital spark within you free from damage and degradation, using it to transcend pain and pleasure, doing everything with a purpose, avoiding lies and hypocrisy, not relying on another person’s actions or failings. To accept everything that comes, and everything that is given, as coming from that same spiritual source.
644. Live each day as if it be your last.
645. What we do now echoes in eternity.
646. Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.
647. Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
648. Nature set a limit on sleep – as it did on eating and drinking. And youre over the limit. But not of working. There youre still below your quota. You dont love yourself enough. Or youd love your nature too and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it. They even forget to wash and eat.
649. Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.
650. Dig inside. Inside is the fountain of good, and it will forever flow, if you will forever dig.
651. It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres.
652. It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it.
653. Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.
654. Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.
655. Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed.’ Take away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed,’ and the harm is taken away.
656. Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.
657. Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces – to what is possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp. What’s thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it – and makes it burn still higher.
658. The man who doesn’t know what the universe is doesn’t know where he lives.
659. 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.
660. Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised.
661. Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear; for where we are able to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.
662. Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.
663. Why dost thou not pray… to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen?
664. Things can never touch the soul, but stand inert outside it, so that disquiet can arise only from fancies within.
665. To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.
666. Let thine occupations be few, saith the sage, if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life.
667. Anything that is beautiful is beautiful just as it is. Praise forms no part of its beauty, since praise makes things neither better nor worse. This applies even more to what it commonly called beautiful: natural objects, for example, or works of art. True beauty has no need of anything beyond itself.
668. Reflect often upon the rapidity with which all existing things, or things coming into existence, sweep past us and are carried away.
669. At day’s first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that “I am rising for the work of man.
670. Never forget that the universe is a single living organism possessed of one substance and one soul, holding all things suspended in a single consciousness and creating all things with a single purpose that they might work together spinning and weaving and knotting whatever comes to pass.
671. The universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything which is within her which appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter, and her own art.
672. If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.
673. The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.
674. Put from you the belief that ‘I have been wronged’, and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.
675. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.
676. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.
677. Put an end once and for all to this discussion of what a good person should be, and be one.
678. This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one’s fate.
679. If thou workest at that which is before thee … expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this.
680. Nature insists on whatever benefits the whole.
681. When you have been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in any manner, quickly return to yourself, and do not continue out of tune longer than the compulsion lasts. You will have increasing control over your own harmony by continually returning to it.
682. Remember this – that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
683. Nature in no case cometh short of art, for the arts are copiers of natural forms.
684. Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.
685. Men exist for the sake of one another.
686. Time is a kind of river, an irresistible flood sweeping up men and events and carrying them headlong, one after the other, to the great sea of being.
687. Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.
688. It is a shame for the soul to be first to give way in this life, when thy body does not give way.
689. That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.
690. A lucky chance is constant in nothing but inconstancy.
691. 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.
692. In this flowing stream, then, on which there is no abiding, what is there of the things which hurry by on which a man would set a high price? It would be just as if a man should fall in love with one of the sparrows which fly by, but it has already passed out of sight.
693. No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with the intelligence which embraces all things. For the intelligent power is no less diffused in all parts and pervades all things for him who is willing to draw it to him than the aërial power for him who is able to respire it.
694. My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature – the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.
695. All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
696. Why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.
697. Men exist for each other. Then either improve them, or put up with them.
698. Our life is what our thoughts make it.
699. Each day provides its own gifts.
700. Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes (701-799)
701. He who pays no attention to what his neighbor does, says or thinks, preferring to concentrate on making his own actions appropriate and justifiable, better uses his time.
702. Cultivate these, then, for they are wholly within your power: sincerity and dignity; industriousness; and sobriety. Avoid grumbling, be frugal, considerate, and frank; be temperate in manner and speech; carry yourself with authority.
703. This is the chief thing: be not perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the universal.
704. When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.
705. Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust.
706. “In the case of all things which have a certain constitution, whatever harm may happen to any of them, that which is affected becomes consequently worse; but in like case, a man becomes both
better… and more worthy of praise, by making the right use of these accidents.”
707. The intelligence of the universe is social.
708. Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself.
709. What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.
710. People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time-even when hard at work.
711. Pray look upon the plants and birds, the ants, spiders, and bees, and you will see them all exerting their nature, and busy in their station. Pray, shall not a man act like a man?
712. 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.
713. I can at once become happy anywhere, for he is happy who has found himself a happy lot. In a word, happiness lies all in the functions of reason, in warrantable desires and virtuous practice.
714. If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.
715. 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
716. Reason and the reasoning faculty need no foreign assistance, but are sufficient for their own purposes. They move within themselves, and make directly for the point in view. Wherefore, acts in accordance with them are called right acts, for they lead along the right road.
717. 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.
718. Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.
719. Everything – a horse, a vine – is created for some duty… For what task, then, were you yourself created?
720. 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.
721. The world is a living being – one nature, one soul. Keep that in mind.
722. Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.
723. To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.
724. By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
725. What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.
726. 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.
727. Everything is ephemeral, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.
728. 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?
729. When you have done a good deed that another has had the benefit of, why do you need a third reward-as fools do-praise for having done well or looking for a favor in return.
730. Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are composed harmoniously, and together – they compose the world.
731. Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.
732. If I and my two children cannot move the gods, the gods must have their reasons.
733. Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.
734. The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.
735. The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
736. Remember: Matter: how tiny your share of it. Time: how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate: how small a role you play in it.
737. 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?
738. He is a true fugitive who flies from reason.
739. Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe.
740. Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What’s closer to nature’s heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? Can any vital process take place without something being changed? Can’t you see? It’s just the same with you – and just as vital to nature.
741. Limit time to the present. Meditate upon your last hour.
742. Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance – now, at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.
743. How ridiculous not to flee from one’s own wickedness, which is possible, yet endeavor to flee from another’s which is not.
744. The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.
745. Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.
746. Man is born for deeds of kindness.
747. This is enough. Do not add, And why were such things made in the world?
748. Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?
749. The main thing we were made for is to work with others.
750. Dig within. There lies the wellspring of good.
751. …in the ways of Nature there is no evil to be found.
752. Why do you hunger for length of days? The point of life is to follow reason and the divine spirit and to accept whatever nature sends you. To live in this way is not to fear death, but to hold it in contempt. Death is only a thing of terror for those unable to live in the present. Pass on your way, then, with a smiling face, under the smile of him who bids you go.
753. Every instant of time… is a pinprick of eternity.
754. No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor does one live any other life than that which he will lose.
755. Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.
756. How barbarous, to deny men the privilege of pursuing what they imagine to be their proper concerns and interests! Yet, in a sense, this is just what you are doing when you allow your indignation to rise at their wrongdoing; for after all, they are only following their own apparent concerns and interests. You say they are mistaken? Why then, tell them so, and explain it to them, instead of being indignant.
757. People exist for one another.
758. Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
759. How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.
760. You need to be prepared for firm decisions and action, without losing gentleness towards those who obstruct or abuse you. It’s as great a weakness to be angry with them as it is to abandon your plan of action and give up through fear.
761. The constant recollection of death is the test of human conduct.
762. Do not fear death, but welcome it, since it too comes from nature. For just as we are young and grow old, and flourish and reach maturity, have teeth and a beard and grey hairs, conceive, become pregnant, and bring forth new life, and all the other natural processes that follow the seasons of our existence, so also do we have death. A thoughtful person will never take death lightly, impatiently, or scornfully, but will wait for it as one of life’s natural processes.
763. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.
764. Can we wonder that men perish and are forgotten, when their noblest and most enduring works decay? Death comes even to monumental structures, and oblivion rests on the most illustrious names.
765. Light may earth’s crumbling sand be laid on thee, that dogs may dig thy bones up easily
766. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.
767. Stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.
768. Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?
769. Stick to what’s in front of you – idea, action, utterance.
770. To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
771. Since you are an integral part of a social system, let every act of yours contribute to the harmonization of social life. Any action that is not related directly or remotely to this social aim disturbs your life, and destroys your unity.
772. Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.
773. It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.
774. The world is nothing but change, our life is only perception.
775. Look deeply. Don’t miss the inherent quality and value of everything.
776. In reading and writing, you cannot lay down rules until you have learnt to obey them. Much more so in life.
777. The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them. That’s all you need to know. Nothing more. Don’t demand to know “why such things exist.” Anyone who understands the world will laugh at you, just as a carpenter would if you seemed shocked at finding sawdust in his workshop, or a shoemaker at scraps of leather left over from work.
778. 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.
779. Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy.
780. When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.
781. In the morning, when you are sluggish about getting up, let this thought be present: ‘I am rising to a man’s work.’
782. We are born for cooperation.
783. Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before his moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus.
784. Be content to seem what you really are.
785. Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before.
786. Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee?
787. Or is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region it takes place. The whole earth a point in space – and most of it uninhabited.
788. This is the mark of a perfect character – to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.
789. Hast thou reason? I have. Why then dost not thou use it? For if this does its own work, what else dost thou wish?
790. He who fears death either fears to lose all sensation or fears new sensations. In reality, you will either feel nothing at all, and therefore nothing evil, or else, if you can feel any sensations, you will be a new creature, and so will not have ceased to have life.
791. “Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable
to hold out against even this.”
792. Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
793. Vex not thy spirit at the course of things, they heed not thy vexations
794. To my great-grandfather I owed the advice to dispense with the education of the schools and have good masters at home instead – and to realize that no expense should be grudged for this purpose.
795. Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbors, unless with a view to some mutual benefit. To wonder what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he is saying, or thinking, or scheming — in a word, anything that distracts you from fidelity to the ruler within you — means a loss of opportunity for some other task.
796. Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.
797. The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
798. Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee.
799. Because other people are fools, must you be so too?
Conclusion: Marcus Aurelius Quotes
Whether you’re navigating personal challenges or striving for greater self-awareness, Marcus Aurelius quotes offer a steady hand and enduring insight.
His words remind us that while we cannot control the world around us, we can always control our reactions and mindset.
By reflecting on these timeless quotes, we gain not only a glimpse into the mind of a great philosopher-king but also a powerful toolkit for living a more intentional, meaningful life.
Let his wisdom continue to shape your thoughts and actions, one quote at a time.
