Quotes By Marcus Aurelius

Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, "This is a misfortune" but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

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

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

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

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

What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.

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

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

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.

Poverty is the mother of crime.

Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.

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.

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

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

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

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.

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

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 opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

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

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

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.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.