Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Submit to the fate of your own free will.

It is possible to depart from life at this moment. Have this thought in mind whenever you act, speak, or think.

Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible; life in a palace is possible; therefore even in a palace a right life is possible.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.

Everything that happens, happens as it should.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Failure to read what is happening in another's soul is not easily seen as a cause of unhappiness: but those who fail to attend the motions of their own soul are necessarily unhappy.

Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.

Think on this doctrine, - that reasoning beings were created for one another's sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.

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

Consider frequently the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For things are somehow implicated with one another, and all in a way friendly to one another.

That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.

Death - a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.

Within ten days thou wilt seem a god to those to whom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou wilt return to thy principles and the worship of reason.

Gluttony and drunkenness have two evils attendant on them; they make the carcass smart, as well as the pocket.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it.... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

...the sole thing of which any man can be deprived is the present; since this is all he owns, and nobody can lose what is not his.

Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.

External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.

All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission.

Find joy in simplicity, self-respect, and indifference to what lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race. Follow the divine.

Remember this - that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.

Take me and cast me where you will; I shall still be possessor of the divinity within me, serene and content.

Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind.

The wrongdoer is often the person who left something undone, rather than the person who has done something

Life is a campaign, a brief staying in a strange region.

Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, 'I have been harmed.' Take away the complaint, 'I have been harmed,' and the harm is taken away.

Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.

Everything is ephemeral, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.

Live each day as if it be your last.

So much worse are the consequences of anger than its causes.

Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? Art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul?

This is the mark of a perfect character - to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.

A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.

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

Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.

Men are born for each other's sake, so either teach people or endure them

Death, like birth, is one of nature's mysteries, the combining of primal elements and dissolving of the same into the same.

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.

Look at everything that exists, and observe that it is already in dissolution and in change, and as it were putrefaction or dispersion, or that everything is so constituted by nature as to die.

Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.

Everything that happens either happens in such a way as you are formed by nature to bear it, or as you are not formed by nature to bear it.

The man who has a house everywhere has a home nowhere

While you live, while it is in your power, be good.

Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute in your devotion to duty.

Take away the complaint, 'I have been harmed,' and the harm is taken away.