Best Marcus Aurelius Quotes

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

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

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

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

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.

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

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

Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.

I have often wondered how it is everyone loves himself more than the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than the opinions of others.

The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

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

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

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.

Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

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

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

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

The art of living is more like that of wrestling than of dancing; the main thing is to stand firm and be ready for an unseen attack.

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

A man's life is what his thoughts make of it.

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.

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

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

One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth.

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.

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

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

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

Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life -- there, if one must speak out, the real man.

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.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

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

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

Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.