Marcus Aurelius Quotes

“Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”

“No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be one.”

“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.”

“The best way of avenging yourself is not to become like the wrongdoer.”

“Remember too, on every occasion that leads you to vexation, to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.”

“As your habitual thoughts are, so will the character of your mind be; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”

“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, seashores, and mountains; and you too are in the habit of desiring such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power, whenever you choose, to retire into yourself.”

“Whatever any one does or says, I must be good, just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this, Whatever any one does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.”

“If a thing is difficult for you to accomplish, do not think that it is impossible for man; but if anything is possible for man and in keeping with his nature, think that you too can attain it.”

“Even if you were going to live three thousand years, and as many times ten thousand years, still remember that no one loses any other life than the one he is now living, nor lives any other than the one he is now losing.”

“It is characteristic of man to love even those who do wrong.”

“Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendour until it is extinguished; and shall the truth that is in you and justice and temperance be extinguished before your death?”

“What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee either.”

“A person often acts unjustly by not doing a certain thing, not only by doing a certain thing.”

“Do not let future things disturb you, for you will come to them, if it is necessary, having with you the same reason that you now use for present things.”

“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.”

“Train yourself even in the things you despair of accomplishing. For even the left hand, which is ineffectual for all other things for want of practice, holds the bridle more vigorously than the right hand; for it has been practised in this.”

“When circumstances have compelled you to be disturbed in some way, quickly return to yourself and do not stay out of tune longer than the compulsion lasts; for you will have more mastery over the harmony by continually returning to it.”

“Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.”

“Pass then through this little space of time in keeping with nature, and end your journey content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.”

“It is a shame for the soul to be the first to give way in this life, when your body does not give way.”

“It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to flee from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to flee from other men's badness, which is impossible.”

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.”

“When you are offended at any man's fault, turn at once to yourself and reflect on how you yourself err in a similar way.”

“Accustom yourself to attend carefully to what another says, and as far as possible, be in the speaker's mind.”

“Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.”

“Consider yourself to be dead, and to have completed your life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder that is allowed you.”

“Be cheerful also, and do not seek external help, nor the tranquility which others give. A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.”

“He who does not have one and always the same aim in life cannot be one and the same all through his life.”

“Do not disturb yourself by thinking of the whole of your life. Do not let your thoughts take in at once all the various troubles you may expect to befall you.”

“When you wish to delight yourself, think of the virtues of those who live with you.”

“And let this truth be present to you in the excitement of anger: that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that just as mildness and gentleness are more agreeable to human nature, so they are also more manly.”

“Begin the morning by saying to yourself: I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them because of their ignorance of what is good and evil.”

“Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?”

“When you are offended by any man's shameless conduct, immediately ask yourself: Is it possible, then, that there should be no shameless men in the world? It is not possible. Do not, then, require what is impossible.”

“Suppose any man despises me. Let him see to that himself. But I will see to this, that I am not found doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.”

“As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.”

“To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says: Give what you will; take back what you will.”

“Love only what happens to you and is spun with the thread of your destiny. For what is more suitable?”

“Within ten days you will seem a god to those to whom you are now a beast and an ape, if you return to your principles and the worship of reason.”

“Adapt yourself to the things with which your lot has been cast; and the men among whom you have received your portion, love them, but do it truly, sincerely.”

“Everything which is in any way beautiful is beautiful in itself, and ends in itself, not having praise as part of itself. A thing, then, is made neither worse nor better by being praised.”

“For most of what we say and do is unnecessary; if a man takes this away, he will have more leisure and less uneasiness. Accordingly on every occasion a man should ask himself, Is this one of the unnecessary things?”

“You do not have the leisure or ability to read. But you have the leisure or ability to check arrogance.”

“In applying your principles you must be like the pankration athlete, not like the gladiator; for the gladiator drops the sword he uses and is killed, but the other always has his hand, and needs to do nothing else than use it.”

“If any man has done wrong, the harm is his own. But perhaps he has not done wrong.”

“He who loves fame considers another man's activity to be his own good; and he who loves pleasure, his own sensations; but he who has understanding, considers his own acts to be his own good.”

“Realize at last that you have in you something better and more divine than the things that cause the various passions and, as it were, pull you by the strings.”

“How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with them; but they greatly value being praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see.”

“Do not be ashamed to be helped; for it is your business to do your duty like a soldier in the assault on a town.”

“Do not be disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied, if you do not succeed in doing everything according to right principles.”

“Never value anything as profitable to yourself that will compel you to break your promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains.”

“A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut off from the whole tree also. So too a man when he is separated from another man has fallen off from the whole social community.”

“Say nothing more to yourself than what the first appearances report. Suppose it has been reported to you that a certain person speaks ill of you. This has been reported; but that you have been injured, that has not been reported.”

“Soon, very soon, you will be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a name or not even a name; but a name is sound and echo.”

“For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason, and when you are most sure that you are occupied with things worth your pains, it is then that it cheats you most.”

“You have embarked, you have made the voyage, you have come to shore; get out.”

“There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.”

“What is your art? To be good.”

“Do not labour as one who is wretched, nor as one who wants to be pitied or admired.”

“Do you wish to be praised by a man who curses himself three times every hour? Would you wish to please a man who does not please himself?”

“Take care not to feel towards the inhuman, as they feel towards men.”

“Do the external things that fall upon you distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and good, and stop being whirled around.”

“Love the art, poor as it may be, that you have learned, and be content with it.”

“Consider that men will do the same things nevertheless, even if you should burst.”

“Wipe out imagination: check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power.”

“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.”

“You can pass your life in a steady flow of happiness, if you can go by the right way, and think and act in the right way.”

“Do not have such an opinion of things as the man who wrongs you has, or such as he wishes you to have, but look at them as they are in truth.”

“What then is it that is able to guide a man? One thing and only one, philosophy.”

“For someone imbued with true principles, even the briefest instruction is sufficient, as is any common instruction, to remind him that he should be free from grief and fear.”

“In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonour in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse.”

“He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.”

“It would be a man's happiest lot to depart from mankind without having had any taste of lying and hypocrisy and luxury and pride.”

“What am I now using my own soul for? On every occasion I must ask myself this question.”

“How ridiculous is someone who is surprised at anything that happens in life, and what a stranger he is.”

“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”

“How plain it appears that there is no other condition of life so well suited for philosophising as this one in which you now happen to be.”

“Loss is nothing else than change.”

“It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.”

“Through not observing what is in the mind of another a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.”

“Body, soul, intelligence: to the body belong sensations, to the soul appetites, to the intelligence principles.”

“Let no act be done without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to the perfect principles of art.”

“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.”

“Do not be whirled about, but in every movement have respect to justice, and on the occasion of every impression maintain the faculty of comprehension or understanding.”

“Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.”

“Examine men's ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of things they avoid, and what kind they pursue.”

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

“How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility.”

“Reason and the reasoning art (philosophy) are powers which are sufficient for themselves and for their own works.”

“Reverence that which is best in the universe; and this is that which makes use of all things and directs all things.”

“Often think of the rapidity with which things pass by and disappear, both the things which are and the things which are produced.”

“The intelligence of the universe is social.”

“All existing things soon change, and they will either be reduced to vapour, if indeed all substance is one, or they will be dispersed.”

“Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social act to another social act, thinking of God.”

“If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured.”

“Death is a cessation of the impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the strings which move the appetites, and of the discursive movements of the thoughts, and of the service to the flesh.”

“Reverence the gods, and help men.”

“Asia, Europe are corners of the universe: all the sea a drop in the universe; Athos a little clod of the universe: all the present time is a point in eternity.”

“Frequently consider the connexion of all things in the universe and their relation to one another.”

“How soon will time cover all things, and how many it has covered already.”

“All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing.”

“To the rational animal the same act is according to nature and according to reason.”

“The ruling faculty does not disturb itself; I mean, does not frighten itself or cause itself pain.”

“The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility.”

“About death: Whether it is a dispersion, or a resolution into atoms, or annihilation, it is either extinction or change.”

“About pain: The pain which is intolerable carries us off; but that which lasts a long time is tolerable; and the mind maintains its own tranquility by retiring into itself, and the ruling faculty is not made worse.”

“The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.”

“All things are change, yet we need not fear anything new.”

“Pain is either an evil to the body- then let the body say what it thinks of it- or to the soul; but it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility, and not to think that pain is an evil.”

“Speak both in the senate and to every man, whoever he may be, appropriately, not with any affectation: use plain discourse.”

“Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.”

“In the constitution of the rational animal I see no virtue which is opposed to justice; but I see a virtue which is opposed to love of pleasure, and that is temperance.”

“Generally, wickedness does no harm at all to the universe; and particularly, the wickedness of one man does no harm to another.”

“Both man and God and the universe produce fruit; at the proper seasons each produces it.”

“Not in passivity, but in activity lie the evil and the good of the rational social animal, just as his virtue and his vice lie not in passivity, but in activity.”

“Soon the earth will cover us all: then the earth, too, will change, and the things also which result from change will continue to change for ever, and these again for ever.”

“The universal cause is like a winter torrent: it carries everything along with it.”

“If a man is mistaken, instruct him kindly and show him his error.”

“There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate the nature of things.”

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

“Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.”

“See what things are in themselves, dividing them into matter, form and purpose.”

“When a man has presented the appearance of having done wrong, say, How then do I know if this is a wrongful act?”

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

“Always run along the short way; and the short way is the natural one: accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason.”

“We must not value the clapping of tongues either, for the praise which comes from the many is a clapping of tongues.”

“Only one thing troubles me: that I might do something which the constitution of man does not allow, or in a way which it does not allow, or what it does not allow now.”

“Another may be more expert in throwing his opponent; but he is not more social, nor more modest, nor better disciplined to meet all that happens, nor more considerate with respect to the faults of his neighbours.”

“One will then sooner find anything earthy which comes in contact with no earthy thing than a man altogether separated from other men.”

“There is no man so fortunate that, when he is dying, there will not be some beside him who are pleased with what is going to happen.”

“What power a man has to do nothing except what God will approve, and to accept all that God may give him.”

“With respect to that which happens in keeping with nature, we ought to blame neither gods, for they do nothing wrong either voluntarily or involuntarily, nor men, for they do nothing wrong except involuntarily.”

“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will always bubble up, if you always dig.”

“The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.”

“Take away your opinion, and then the complaint, "I have been harmed," is taken away. Take away the complaint, "I have been harmed," and the harm is taken away.”

“One thing here is worth a great deal: to pass your life in truth and justice, with a benevolent disposition even to liars and unjust men.”

“Do not waste the rest of your life in thoughts about others, when you do not direct your thoughts to some object of common benefit.”

“My city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome, but so far as I am a man, it is the world.”

“Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.”