Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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.
Remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment.
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.
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.
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.
Light may earth's crumbling sand be laid on thee, that dogs may dig thy bones up easily
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.
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.
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.
...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.
Reflect often upon the rapidity with which all existing things, or things coming into existence, sweep past us and are carried away.
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?
The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
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.
To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.
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?
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.
My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature - the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.
All things change, and you yourself are constantly wasting away. So also is the universe.
Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself.
Never let the future disturb you - you will meet it with the same weapons of reason and mind that, today, guard you against the present...
When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...
Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.
Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune, " but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.
striid andWthdraw into yourself. Our master-reason asks no more than to act justly, and thereby to achieve calm.
Do wrong to thyself, do wrong to thyself, my soul, but thou wilt no longer have the opportunity of honoring thyself.
We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.