Marcus Aurelius Quotes

“No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor does one live any other life than that which he will lose.”

“Poverty is the mother of crime.”

“Live your life as if you are ready to say goodbye to it at any moment, as if the time left for you were some pleasant surprise.”

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“So you know how things stand. Now forget what they think of you. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Focus on that, and don't let anything distract you. You've wandered all over and finally realized that you never found what you were after: how to live. Not in syllogisms, not in money, or fame, or self-indulgence. Nowhere.”

“If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.”

“Does what's happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforward ness, and all other qualities that allow a person's nature to fulfill itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.”

“The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.”

“Short is the little which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain.”

“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.”

“No state sorrier than that of the man who keeps up a continual round, and pries into "the secrets of the nether world," as saith the poet, and is curious in conjecture of what is in hisneighbour's heart.”

“If you are distressed by something, it is due to your own estimate of it; and you have the power to change it at will.”

“Your task is to stand straight; not to be held straight.”

“Unhappy am I because this has happened to me.- Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.”

“Remember that all is opinion.”

“He is a true fugitive who flies from reason.”

“Neither in thy actions be sluggish nor in thy conversation without method, nor wandering in thy thoughts, nor let there be in thy soul inward contention nor external effusion, nor in life be so busy as to have no leisure.”

“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

“A good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine.”

“A man should be upright, not be kept upright.”

“Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason.”

“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.”

“Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and ay, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?'”

“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.”

“To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.”