Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Receive without conceit, release without struggle.

Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.

All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.

Dig inside. Inside is the fountain of good, and it will forever flow, if you will forever dig.

Even while a thing is in the act of coming into existence, some part of it has already ceased to be.

It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it.

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.

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

Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.

This is the chief thing: be not perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the universal.

The stone that is thrown into the air is none the worse for falling down, and none the better for going up.

Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.

Leave other people's mistakes where they lie.

Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.

I, who have never willfully pained another, have no business to pain myself.

Death hangs over thee, While thou still live, while thou may, do good.

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.

He that dies in extreme old age will be reduced to the same state with him that is cut down untimely.

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.

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

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

It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.

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

If it's time for you to go, leave willingly - as you would to accomplish anything that can be done with grace and honor.

It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres.

Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to.

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.

Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

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.

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.

The man who doesn't know what the universe is doesn't know where he lives.

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.

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?

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.

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.

That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.

Let goodness go with the doing.

In reading and writing, you cannot lay down rules until you have learnt to obey them. Much more so in life.

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.

Stick to what's in front of you - idea, action, utterance.

You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves.

All that is from the gods is full of Providence.

How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.

The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it

Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe.

If the gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for it.

In the morning, when you are sluggish about getting up, let this thought be present: 'I am rising to a man's work.'

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.

Everything is mere opinion.

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.