Marcus Aurelius

50 quotes

Lived: 121 – 180
Era: Classical antiquity
Place: Rome, ancient Italy

Roman emperor and Stoic; Meditations records private notes on duty, mortality, and kindness.

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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive.
— Marcus AureliusGratitude
You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.
— Marcus AureliusStrength
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.
— Marcus AureliusStrength
If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
— Marcus AureliusSpiritual
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
— Marcus AureliusSpiritual
In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present—I am rising to the work of a human being.
— Marcus AureliusHope
No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.
— Marcus AureliusCourage
Where a man can live, there he can also live well.
— Marcus AureliusCourage
While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
— Marcus AureliusGrowth
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.
— Marcus AureliusGratitude
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
— Marcus AureliusStrength
Look within; within is the fountain of all good. Such a fountain, where springing waters can never fail, so thou dig still deeper and deeper.
— Marcus AureliusStrength
Remember that thy mind is of that nature as that it becometh altogether unconquerable, when once recollected in herself.
— Marcus AureliusStrength
Nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquillity.
— Marcus AureliusSpiritual
Be content with little, be kind, be free.
— Marcus AureliusGratitude
The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
— Marcus AureliusSpiritual
For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
For the mind converts and changes every hindrance to its activity into an aid.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Does another do me wrong? Let him look to it. He has his own disposition, his own activity. I now have what the universal nature now wills me to have; and I do what my nature now wills me to do.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly shows to them that his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned to him.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Thou canst pass thy life in an equable flow of happiness, if thou canst go by the right way, and think and act in the right way.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social act to another social act, thinking of God.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, do not think that it is impossible for man: but if anything is possible for man and conformable to his nature, think that this can be attained by thyself too.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Keep thyself then simple, good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life. There is only one fruit of this terrene life--a pious disposition and social acts.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Adapt thyself to the things with which thy lot has been cast: and the men among whom thou hast received thy portion, love them, but do it truly.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty, and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Every soul, the philosopher says, is involuntarily deprived of truth; consequently in the same way it is deprived of justice and temperance and benevolence and everything of the kind. It is most necessary to bear this constantly in mind, for thus thou wilt be more gentle towards all.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Am I doing anything? I do it with reference to the good of mankind. Does anything happen to me? I receive it and refer it to the gods, and the source of all things, from which all that happens is derived.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man. Now it is a proper work of a man to be benevolent to his own kind.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
If thou art able, correct by teaching those who do wrong; but if thou canst not, remember that indulgence is given to thee for this purpose.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Try how the life of the good man suits thee, the life of him who is satisfied with his portion out of the whole, and satisfied with his own just acts and benevolent disposition.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
The same things happen to another, and either because he does not see that they have happened, or because he would show a great spirit, he is firm and remains unharmed.
— Marcus AureliusStrength
Take away thy 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.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not thy thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which thou mayest expect to befall thee.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those who live with thee.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then, or bear with them.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
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.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
It is peculiar to man to love even those who do wrong.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
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.
— Marcus AureliusStoic
Consider that a good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine, and not an affected smile and acting a part.
— Marcus AureliusStoic