Marcus Aurelius Quotes

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

“Never act without purpose and resolve, or without the means to finish the job.”

“Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.”

“Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.”

“Do not be ashamed of help.”

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

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”

“How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.”

“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.”

“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”

“The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.”

“Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”

“No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.”

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

“Nothing is worth doing pointlessly.”

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

“We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one's back is counterproductive.”

“In an expression of true gratitude, sadness is conspicuous only by its absence”

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”

“People generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they would gladly overtop; so that truth and ceremony are two things.”

“And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.”

“Always follow these two rules: first, act only on what your reasoning mind proposes for the good of humanity, and second, change your opinion if someone shows you it's wrong. This change of mind must proceed only from the conviction that it's both correct and for the common good, but not because it will give you pleasure and make you popular.”

“Not to waste time on nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it. Not to be obsessed with quail-fighting or other crazes like that.”

“Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.”

“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.”