Marcus Aurelius famous quotes

Our life is what our thoughts make it.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Karma #Life And Love

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Truth #Intelligent #Greatness

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Love #Life #Good Morning

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Life #Motivational

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Love #Nature #Fate

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Happiness #Happy

Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Lying #Past

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Science #Power

Confine yourself to the present.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Philosophical #Mindfulness

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Time #Integrity #Dope

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Future #Adventure #Worry

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#People #Understanding #Mind

If you do the task before you always adhering to strict reason with zeal and energy and yet with humanity, disregarding all lesser ends and keeping the divinity within you pure and upright, as though you were even now faced with its recall - if you hold steadily to this, staying for nothing and shrinking from nothing, only seeking in each passing action a conformity with nature and in each word and utterance a fearless truthfulness, then the good life shall be yours. And from this course no man has the power to hold you back.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Good Life #Men #Fearless

Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before his moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus....
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Views #Bonus #Moments

Each day provides its own gifts.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Gratitude #Philosophical

You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Soul #Needs #Asking

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Beauty #Running

Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore?
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Positive #Able

If any man can convince me and bring home to me that which I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Home #Ignorance #Dark

You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Soul #Littles #Used

Your life is an expression of all your thoughts.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Expression #Life Is

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Happiness #Peace #Philosophical

Either an ordered Universe or a medley heaped together mechanically but still an order; or can order subsist in you and disorder in the Whole! And that, too, when all things are so distinguished and yet intermingled and sympathetic.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Order #Together #Medley

Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Mind #Tranquility

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Death #Suicide

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

#Inspirational #Strength #Positive Thinking

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Truth #Honesty

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Revenge #Hatred

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Strength #Believe

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Art #Philosophical

Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbors, unless with a view to some mutual benefit. To wonder what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he is saying, or thinking, or scheming -- in a word, anything that distracts you from fidelity to the ruler within you -- means a loss of opportunity for some other task.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Mean #Loss #Opportunity

Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Empathy #Mind #Speakers

Since you are an integral part of a social system, let every act of yours contribute to the harmonization of social life. Any action that is not related directly or remotely to this social aim disturbs your life, and destroys your unity.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Community #Action #Social

If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Mistake #Ignorance #Self

Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Goes On #Good Person

When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance revert at once to yourself and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help. You'll have a better grasp of harmony if you keep going back to it.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Adversity #Helping #Harmony

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Wise #Philosophical #Math

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Happiness #Broken Heart #Inspirational Life

Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Too Late #Harmony #Thee

This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole...
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Mind #Bears

Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Death #Suicide

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Love #Inspirational #Change

Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Strength #Men #Dust

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Philosophical #Dying

A person's life is dyed with the color of his imagination.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Color #Imagination

What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Bears #Remains

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Philosophical #Self Confidence

The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That's all you need to know.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Adversity #Needs #Cucumbers

Poverty is the mother of crime.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Mother #Philosophical #Politics

Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Ignorance #Evil #Selfishness

When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Self #Upset #Unity

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Fear #Philosophy #Philosophical

He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different kind of sensation. But if thou shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou feel any harm; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensation, thou wilt be a different kind of living being and thou wilt not cease to live.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Loss #Different #Kind

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Philosophical #Color

Which is recorded of Socrates, that he was able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Strong #Men #Perfect

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Change #Grief #Failure

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Life #Philosophical

For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Self Esteem #Independence #Self Determination

Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Holy

Everything - a horse, a vine - is created for some duty... For what task, then, were you yourself created?
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Horse #Tasks #Vines

Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Adversity #Men #Endure

Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Mules #Drivers #Things Happen

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.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Integrity #Years #Over You

Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Healing #Thinking

A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Persons #Values

The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Positive #Men #Pursue

Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Time #Giving #Something New

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Way #Action #Thrive

Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together...
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Morning #Hate #Real

Dig within. There lies the wellspring of good.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Wise #Lying #Wellspring

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.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Thinking #Light

Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Country #Art #Men

All things are linked with one another, and this oneness is sacred; there is nothing that is not interconnected with everything else. For things are interdependent, and they combine to form this universal order. There is only one universe made up of all things, and one creator who pervades them; there is one substance and one law, namely, common reason in all thinking creatures, and all truth is one-if, as we believe, there is only one path of perfection for all beings who share the same mind.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Believe #Thinking #Order

Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Water #Cliffs

Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Destiny #Woven #Needs

Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Inspirational #Character #Soul

Live not one's life as though one had a thousand years, but live each day as the last.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Birthday #Years #Each Day

The universe is in change, life is an opinion.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Life #Opinion #Universe

Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Water #Wave #Break

Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be, become one yourself!
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Talking #Soul #Waste

In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Justice #Remembrance #Speech

Run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something: the most famous, the most unfortunate, the most hated, the most whatever: Where is all that now? Smoke, dust, legend...or not even a legend. Think of all the examples. And how trivial the things we want so passionately are.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Running #Thinking #Dust

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

#Inspirational #Philosophical #Thinking

The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. 'The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.'
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Revenge #Wrath #Needs

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#War #Philosophical #Future

Submit to the fate of your own free will.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Fate #Free Will #Submit

The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Philosophical #Forever #Keep Moving Forward

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.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Honesty #Pain #Humility

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.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Friendly #Connections #Way

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.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Men #Thinking #Justice

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

#Time #Philosophical #Men

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

#Work #Fate #Manifestation

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Philosophical #Imagination #Understanding

The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Peace #Avenging #Doers

Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Community #Mind #Vision

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Expression #Order #Principles

Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Soul #Use #Sun

Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Forgiveness #Annoying #Annoyance

Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Attitude #Color #Soul

Observe constantly that all things take place by change.
-- Marcus Aurelius

#Change