Marcus Aurelius

Quotations

• If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now. (VIII. 47, trans. George Long)
• A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There are briars in the road. Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, "And why were such things made in the world?" (VIII. 50, trans. George Long)
• Soon you'll be ashes or bones. A mere name at most—and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, trivial. (V. 33, trans. Gregory Hays)
• Never regard something as doing you good if it makes you betray a trust or lose your sense of shame or makes you show hatred, suspicion, ill-will or hypocrisy or a desire for things best done behind closed doors. (III. 7, trans. Gregory Hays)
• Not to feel exasperated or defeated or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human—however imperfectly—and fully embrace the pursuit you've embarked on. (V. 9, trans. Gregory Hays)
• Let opinion be taken away, and no man will think himself wronged. If no man shall think himself wronged, then is there no more any such thing as wrong. (IV. 7, trans. Méric Casaubon)
• (...) 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. (III. 4, trans. Maxwell Staniforth)
• Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body still perseveres. (VI. 29, trans. Maxwell Staniforth)
• Take away your opinion, and there is taken away the complaint, [...] Take away the complaint, [...] and the hurt is gone (IV. 7, trans. George Long)
• Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both of them together: your own existence and the things that happen to you. (V. 8, trans. Gregory Hays)
• Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good. (IV. 17, trans. George Long)
• Words that everyone once used are now obsolete, and so are the men whose names were once on everyone's lips: Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Dentatus, and to a lesser degree Scipio and Cato, and yes, even Augustus, Hadrian, and Antoninus are less spoken of now than they were in their own days. For all things fade away, become the stuff of legend, and are soon buried in oblivion. Mind you, this is true only for those who blazed once like bright stars in the firmament, but for the rest, as soon as a few clods of earth cover their corpses, they are 'out of sight, out of mind.' 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. (IV. 33, trans. Scot and David Hicks)
• Do not then consider life a thing of any value. For look at the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is before thee, another boundless space. In this infinity then what is the difference between him who lives three days and him who lives three generations? (IV. 50, trans. George Long)
• When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. (II. 1, trans. Gregory Hays)

A man should be upright, not be kept upright. Marcus Aurelius

A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last. Marcus Aurelius

Anger cannot be dishonest. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely. Marcus Aurelius

Be content to seem what you really are. Marcus Aurelius

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it. Marcus Aurelius

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished. Marcus Aurelius

Confine yourself to the present. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature. Marcus Aurelius

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else. Marcus Aurelius

Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig. Marcus Aurelius

Do every act of your life as if it were your last. Marcus Aurelius

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. Marcus Aurelius

Men exist for the sake of one another. Marcus Aurelius

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear. Marcus Aurelius

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life. Marcus Aurelius

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

Our life is what our thoughts make it. Marcus Aurelius

Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers. Marcus Aurelius

Poverty is the mother of crime. Marcus Aurelius

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. Marcus Aurelius

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Marcus Aurelius

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees. Marcus Aurelius

The act of dying is one of the acts of life. Marcus Aurelius

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. Marcus Aurelius

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away. Marcus Aurelius

The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious. Marcus Aurelius

The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer. Marcus Aurelius

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Marcus Aurelius

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

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. Marcus Aurelius

The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it. Marcus Aurelius

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

To live happily is an inward power of the soul. Marcus Aurelius

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge. Marcus Aurelius

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution. Marcus Aurelius

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions. Marcus Aurelius

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday. Marcus Aurelius

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. Marcus Aurelius

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

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. Marcus Aurelius

What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat. Marcus Aurelius

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

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life. Marcus Aurelius

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/marcus_aurelius_4.html#ixzz1O4PBjXdk

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. Marcus Aurelius

Where a man can live, he can also live well. Marcus Aurelius

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. Marcus Aurelius

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long. Marcus Aurelius

Your life is what your thoughts make it. Marcus Aurelius

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/marcus_aurelius_5.html#ixzz1O4PFvr5e

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Last modified: March, 12, 2019