Marcus Aurelius Quotes

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.

Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle...

Do what you will. Even if you tear yourself apart, most people will continue doing the same things.

You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.

That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.

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

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.

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.

Nothing is evil which is according to nature.

A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all - that is myself.

All is ephemeral - fame and the famous as well.

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?

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

You have to assemble your life yourself - action by action.

He who eats my bread, does my will.

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

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

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

Be content to seem what you really are.

Dress not thy thoughts in too fine a raiment. And be not a man of superfluous words or superfluous deeds.

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

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

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.

Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.

What does not benefit the hive is no benefit to the bee.

To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief

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.

...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.

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

Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.

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.

Life is a stranger's sojourn, a night at an inn.

A man's life is what his thoughts make of it.

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.

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.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change.

It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.

Change your attitude to the things that bother you and you will be aware of them.

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

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.

Welcome every experience the looms of fate may weave for you.

Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be, become one yourself!

Everything - a horse, a vine - is created for some duty... For what task, then, were you yourself created?

Body. Soul. Mind. Sensations: the body. Desires: the soul. Reasoning: the mind.

Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.

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!

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."

Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.