Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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.
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.
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.
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?
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.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
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?'
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.
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.
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
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.
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.
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
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.
Adapt yourself to the life you have been given; and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you.
Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.
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.
No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.
Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
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.
Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before his moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus.
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?
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.
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
Past and future have no power over you. Just the present - and even that can be minimized.
To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.
Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.
