550 Inspirational Marcus Aurelius Quotes On Leadership
1. “People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
2. “The soul of a man harms itself, first and foremost, when it becomes (as far as it can) a separate growth, a sort of tumour on the universe; because to resent anything that happens is to separate oneself in revolt from Nature, which holds in collective embrace the particular natures of all other things.”
3. “No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess? ... It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.”
4. “A key point to bear in mind: The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.” – Marcus Aurelius
5. People with a strong physical constitution can tolerate extremes of hot and cold; people of strong mental health can handle anger, grief, joy and the other emotions.
6. “When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case they're misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?”
7. Know that pessimism can easily overtake you.
8. To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony.
9. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat.
10. “To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.”
11. “No person is free who is not master of himself.”
12. “How unlucky I am that this should happen to me. But not at all. Perhaps, say how lucky I am that I am not broken by what has happened, and I am not afraid of what is about to happen. For the same blow might have stricken anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation and complaint.”
13. “Stick to what’s in front of you – idea, action, utterance.” – Marcus Aurelius
14. “You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious. You need to get used to winnowing your thoughts, so that if someone says, "What are your thinking about?" you can respond at once (and truthfully) that you are thinking this or thinking that.”
15. “A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance—unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
16. “It isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
17. “That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.
18. It will even do to socialize with men of good character, in order to model your life on theirs, whether you choose someone living or someone from the past.
19. “Have i done something for the common good? Then i share in the benefits. To stay centered on that. Not to give up.”
20. It is not right that anything of any other kind, such as praise from the many, or power, or enjoyment of pleasure, should come into competition with that which is rationally and politically and practically good.
21. “Confine yourself to the present.”
22. “All things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare, and a visit to a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion.”
23. “Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.”
24. Marcus Aurelius quote on using your experience and knowledge
25. “Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.” – Marcus Aurelius
26. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
27. “Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.”
28. “All things fade and quickly turn to myth.”
29. “Anger cannot be dishonest.”
30. “Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”
31. “Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn’t from outside me but in my own assumptions.”
32. “A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance — unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
33. “Never let the future disturb you - you will meet it with the same weapons of reason and mind that, today, guard you against the present...”
34. “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. Think constantly on the changes of the elements into each other, for such thoughts wash away the dust of earthly life.”
35. “The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”
36. “That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.”
37. “A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.”
38. “A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.”
39. “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.”
40. “Whenever someone has done wrong by you, immediately consider what notion of good or evil they had in doing it. For when you see that, you’ll feel compassion, instead of astonishment or rage.”
41. “If then it’s not that the things you pursue or avoid are coming at you, but rather that you in a sense are seeking them out, at least try to keep your judgment of them steady, and they too will remain calm and you won’t be seen chasing after or fleeing from them.”
42. “He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
43. “Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.” – Marcus Aurelius
44. “It is quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it.” – Marcus Aurelius
45. “Each day provides its own gifts.”
46. “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” — Marcus Aurelius
47. “Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquility which others give. A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.”
48. “Human life. Duration: momentary. Nature: changeable. Perception: dim. Condition of Body: decaying. Soul: spinning around. Fortune: unpredictable. Lasting Fame: uncertain. Sum Up: The body and its parts are a river, the soul a dream and mist, life is warfare and a journey far from home, lasting reputation is oblivion.”
49. What is your vocation? To be a good person.
50. “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.”
51. “Self reliance, always. And cheerfulness.” – Marcus Aurelius
52. “Nothing is more scandalous than a man that is proud of his humility.”
53. “In an expression of true gratitude, sadness is conspicuous only by its absence”
54. “In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business.”
55. “Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.” – Marcus Aurelius
56. “You must build up your life action by action, and be content if each one achieves its goal as far as possible—and no one can keep you from this.”
57. “In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present,—I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?—But this is more pleasant.—Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which, is according to thy nature? But it is necessary to take rest also.—It is necessary. However, Nature has fixed bounds to this too: she has fixed bounds to eating and drinking, and yet thou goest beyond these bounds, beyond what is sufficient; yet in thy acts it is not so, but thou stoppest short of what thou canst do. So thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou wouldst love thy nature and her will. But those who love their several arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed and without food; but thou valuest thy own nature less than the turner values the turning art, or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of money values his money, or the vain-glorious man his little glory. And such men, when they have a violent affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to sleep rather than to perfect the things which they care for. But are the acts which concern society more vile in thy eyes and less worthy of thy labor?”
58. “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
59. “Its a dream, a fearful dream, life is”
60. “Soon you’ll be ashes, or bones. A mere name, at most—and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, and trivial. Dogs snarling at each other. Quarreling children—laughing and then bursting into tears a moment later. Trust, shame, justice, truth—“gone from the earth and only found in heaven.” Why are you still here? Sensory objects are shifting and unstable; our senses dim and easily deceived; the soul itself a decoction of the blood; fame in a world like this is worthless. —And so? Wait for it patiently—annihilation or metamorphosis. —And until that time comes—what? Honor and revere the gods, treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant with others and strict with yourself. Remember, nothing belongs to you but your flesh and blood—and nothing else is under your control.”
61. “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.”
62. “If anyone can refute me—show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective—I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone.”
63. “Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature,
64. “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.”
65. “Don’t be ashamed of needing help. You have a duty to fulfill just like a soldier on the wall of battle. So what if you are injured and can’t climb up without another soldier’s help?”
66. “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly.”
67. Marcus Aurelius quote on being prepared for any eventuality
68. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” — Marcus Aurelius
69. “When you first rise in the morning tell yourself: I will encounter busybodies, ingrates, egomaniacs, liars, the jealous and cranks. They are all stricken with these afflictions because they don’t know the difference between good and evil. Because I have understood the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil, I know that these wrong-doers are still akin to me. . . and that none can do me harm, or implicate me in ugliness—nor can I be angry at my relatives or hate them. For we are made for cooperation.”
70. “Life is opinion.”
71. “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.”
72. “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. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet or eyelids, or the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law – and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction.”
73. “Learn to ask of all actions, “Why are they doing that?” Starting with your own.” – Marcus Aurelius
74. “The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.”
75. Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
76. “Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.” – Marcus Aurelius
77. “Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself.”
78. “The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.” – Marcus Aurelius
79. “If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.” – Marcus Aurelius
80. “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” — Marcus Aurelius
81. “Don’t return to philosophy as a task-master, but as patients seek out relief in a treatment of sore eyes, or a dressing for a burn, or from an ointment. Regarding it this way, you’ll obey reason without putting it on display and rest easy in its care.”
82. “I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole,” Marcus said. These 7 books are a great place to expand your understanding of philosophy & life.
83. “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.” – Marcus Aurelius
84. “Wherever a person can live, there one can also live well.”
85. “Book 8, #36Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not assemble in your mind the many and varied troubles which have come to you in the past and will come again in the future, but ask yourself with regard to every present difficulty: 'What is there in this that is unbearable and beyond endurance?' You would be ashamed to confess it! And then remind yourself that it is not the future or what has passed that afflicts you, but always the present, and the power of this is much diminished if you take it in isolation and call your mind to task if it thinks that it cannot stand up to it when taken on its own.”
86. “So other people hurt me? That’s their problem. Their character and actions are not mine. What is done to me is ordained by nature, what I do by my own.”
87. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
88. Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one.
89. “Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense.” – Marcus Aurelius
90. “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
91. “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
92. “The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.“
93. “No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.” – Marcus Aurelius
94. “To read with diligence; not to rest satisfied with a light and superficial knowledge, nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken”
95. Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
96. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.
97. “The best answer to anger is silence.” – Marcus Aurelius
98. “The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”
99. “No matter how good a life you lead, you won’t please everyone. Someone will be glad to see you go.” – Marcus Aurelius
100. Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
101. “In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them.” – Marcus Aurelius
102. “Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.” – Marcus Aurelius
103. “Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.”
104. “Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.”
105. “The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. 21.”
106. “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact, Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” – Marcus Aurelius
107. “Do the things external which fall upon thee distract thee? Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.”
108. If we try to adapt our mind to the regular sequence of changes and accept the inevitable with good grace, our life will proceed quite smoothly and harmoniously.
109. “Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.”
110. “You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves.” – Marcus Aurelius
111. “Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”
112. “Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option: to accept this event with humility [will]; to treat this person as he should be treated [action]; to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in [perception].” – Marcus Aurelius
113. “We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into being without it?” – Marcus Aurelius
114. “No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor does one live any other life than that which he will lose.”
115. “Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. 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. . . .”
116. “What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.”
117. “The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.”
118. “If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it.”
119. 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.
120. “Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
121. “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.”
122. “Receive without conceit, release without struggle.”
123. “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius
124. “Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”
125. “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”
126. “Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”
127. “Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.”
128. “Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.”
129. “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.”
130. “If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it—for I seek the truth, by which no one has ever been harmed. The one who is harmed is the one who abides in deceit and ignorance.”
131. “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.” — Marcus Aurelius
132. “Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.”
133. “Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self surrender.” – Marcus Aurelius
134. Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
135. “The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” – Marcus Aurelius
136. “How easily we love ourselves above all others, yet we put more stock in the opinions of others than in our own estimation of self…”
137. “Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.”
138. ‘Well, what will my profession in the community be?’ Whatever position you are equipped to fill, so long as you preserve the man of trust and integrity.
139. “A man should always have these two rules in readiness. First, to do only what the reason of your ruling and legislating faculties suggest for the service of man. Second, to change your opinion whenever anyone at hand sets you right and unsettles you in an opinion, but this change of opinion should come only because you are persuaded that something is just or to the public advantage, not because it appears pleasant or increases your reputation.”
140. “If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” – Marcus Aurelius
141. “That kindness is invincible, provided it’s sincere- not ironic or an act. What can even the most vicious person do if you keep treating him with kindness and gently set him straight.” – Marcus Aurelius
142. To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.
143. “In everything that you do, pause and ask yourself if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives you of this.”
144. “Kindness is invincible.”
145. “If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.” – Marcus Aurelius
146. Never get into family fights over material things; give them up willingly, and your moral standing will increase in proportion.
147. “One person, on doing well by others, immediately accounts the expected favor in return. Another is not so quick, but still considers the person a debtor and knows the favor. A third kind of person acts as if not conscious of the deed, rather like a vine producing a cluster of grapes without making further demands, like a horse after its race, or a dog after its walk, or a bee after making its honey. Such a person, having done a good deed, won’t go shouting from rooftops but simply moves on to the next deed just like the vine produces another bunch of grapes in the right season.”
148. “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.”
149. To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind himself.
150. “When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”
151. “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.”
152. “When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.” – Marcus Aurelius
153. “It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.” – Marcus Aurelius
154. “Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not assemble in your mind the many and varied troubles which have come to you in the past and will come again in the future, but ask yourself with regard to every present difficulty: 'What is there in this that is unbearable and beyond endurance?' You would be ashamed to confess it! And then remind yourself that it is not the future or what has passed that afflicts you, but always the present, and the power of this is much diminished if you take it in isolation and call your mind to task if it thinks that it cannot stand up to it when taken on its own.”
155. “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.”
156. “If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”
157. Marcus Aurelius quote on learning that, in general, there’s no such thing as unbiased truth
158. “Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on—it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance—unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
159. “That all is as thinking makes it so – and you control your thinking. So remove your judgements whenever you wish and then there is calm - as the sailor rounding the cape finds smooth water and the welcome of a waveless bay.”
160. “Finis coronat opus,” as Marcus might have said. “The end crowns the work.” What do you think of our list of the best Marcus Aurelius quotes? Does it deserve a crown? A poop emoji? Are we missing your favorite quote, or do you have a different translation of one of our highlights that you’d like to share? Let us know on Twitter, and we’ll be happy to update this list as we go!
161. “Today I escaped all circumstance, or rather I cast out all circumstance, for it was not outside me, but within my judgements.”
162. Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
163. “Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.” – Marcus Aurelius
164. “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” — Marcus Aurelius
165. “How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life”
166. “Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.”
167. “To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.”
168. “Practice even what seems impossible.” – Marcus Aurelius
169. “How good it is, when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this the dead body of a bird or pig.”
170. “All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.”
171. “strength and honor”
172. “When you run up against someone else’s shamelessness, ask yourself this: Is a world without shamelessness possible?
173. “Swiftly the remembrance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity.”
174. “Everything - a horse, a vine - is created for some duty... For what task, then, were you yourself created?”
175. “Anger and the sorrow it produces are far more harmful than the things which make us angry.”
176. “To feel affection for people even when they make mistakes is uniquely human. You can do it, if you simply recognize: that they’re human too, that they act out of ignorance, against their will, and that you’ll both be dead before long” – Marcus Aurelius
177. “Frequently consider the connection of all things in the Universe. ... Reflect upon
178. “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.”
179. “Even if you’re going to live three thousand more years, or ten times that, remember: you cannot lose another life than the one you’re living now, or live another one than the one you’re losing. The longest amounts to the same as the shortest. The present is the same for everyone; its loss is the same for everyone; and it should be clear that a brief instant is all that is lost. For you can’t lose either the past or the future; how could you lose what you don’t have?”
180. “Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.”
181. “Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.”
182. “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.”
183. “Some things are hurrying into existence and others are hurrying out of it and of that which is coming into existence, part is already extinguished. In this flowing stream then, on which there is no abiding, what is there of things which hurry on by on which a man would set a high price. It would be just as if a man should fall in love with one of the sparrows which fly by but has already passed out of sight.”
184. “How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.” – Marcus Aurelius
185. Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love.
186. “Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do.
187. Death is not an evil. What is it then? The one law mankind has that is free of all discrimination.
188. “The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.”
189. “You have been formed of three parts—body, breath, and mind. Of these, the first two are yours insofar as they are only in your care. The third alone is truly yours.”
190. “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” – Marcus Aurelius
191. “A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.”
192. “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
193. “From the philosopher Catulus, never to be dismissive of a friend's accusation, even if it seems unreasonable, but to make every effort to restore the relationship to its normal condition.”
194. “From my great-grandfather: not to have attended schools for the public; to have had good teachers at home, and to realize that this is the sort of thing on which one should spend lavishly.”
195. “Whatever time you choose is the right time. Not late, not early.” – Marcus Aurelius
196. “Whether you are shivering with cold or too hot, sleepy or wide awake, spoken well of or badly, dying, or doing anything else, do not let it interfere with doing what is right. For whatever causes us to die is also one of life's processes. Even for this, nothing is required of us than to accomplish well the task at hand.”
197. “I’m going to be meeting with people today who talk too much – people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won’t be surprised or disturbed, for I can’t imagine a world without such people.”
198. “Men exist for the sake of one another.”
199. “What we do now echoes in eternity.” — Marcus Aurelius
200. Be mindful of others' humanity.
201. “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
202. “The fisherman know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never seen these dangers sufficient reason for staying ashore.” - Vincent van Gogh
203. “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”
204. “Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.”
205. “There’s nothing more insufferable than people who boast about their own humility.” – Marcus Aurelius
206. If you didn’t learn these things in order to demonstrate them in practice, what did you learn them for?
207. “To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind himself.” – Marcus Aurelius
208. “If we judge as good and evil only the things in the power of our own choice, then there is no room left for blaming gods or being hostile to others.”
209. “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” – Marcus Aurelius
210. “It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.”
211. “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?“
212. “Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.” – Marcus Aurelius
213. “Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.”
214. Death is necessary and cannot be avoided. I mean, where am I going to go to get away from it?
215. “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, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Constantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thyself; and let thy principles be brief and fundamental, which, as soon as thou shalt recur to them, will be sufficient to cleanse the soul completely, and to send thee back free from all discontent with the things to which thou returnest. For with what art thou discontented? With the badness of men? Recall to thy mind this conclusion, that rational animals exist for one another, and that to endure is a part of justice, and that men do wrong involuntarily; and consider how many already, after mutual enmity, suspicion, hatred, and fighting, have been stretched dead, reduced to ashes; and be quiet at last.- But perhaps thou art dissatisfied with that which is assigned to thee out of the universe.- Recall to thy recollection this alternative; either there is providence or atoms, fortuitous concurrence of things; or remember the arguments by which it has been proved that the world is a kind of political community, and be quiet at last.- But perhaps corporeal things will still fasten upon thee.- Consider then further that the mind mingles not with the breath, whether moving gently or violently, when it has once drawn itself apart and discovered its own power, and think also of all that thou hast heard and assented to about pain and pleasure, and be quiet at last.- But perhaps the desire of the thing called fame will torment thee.- See how soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos of infinite time on each side of the present, and the emptiness of applause, and the changeableness and want of judgement in those who pretend to give praise, and the narrowness of the space within which it is circumscribed, and be quiet at last. For the whole earth is a point, and how small a nook in it is this thy dwelling, and how few are there in it, and what kind of people are they who will praise thee.”
216. “It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”
217. The spiritual meaning of love is measured by what it can do. Love is meant to heal. Love is meant to renew. Love is meant to bring us closer to God.
218. “Meditate upon what you ought to be in body and soul when death overtakes you; meditate on the brevity of life, and the measureless gulf of eternity behind it and before, and upon the frailty of everything material.”
219. “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.”
220. “Don’t imagine that something is good for you if, in pursuing it, you must break a promise, harm anyone else, lose self-respect, act hypocritically, or hide in shame.” – Marcus Aurelius
221. “What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.”
222. “Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”
223. “Objective judgment, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance—now, at this very moment—of all external events. That’s all you need.”
224. “Think of the universal substance, of which thou has a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art”
225. “Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.”
226. Consider that before long you will be nobody and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist that you now see, nor any of those who are now living. For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned and to perish in order that other things in continuous succession may exist.
227. “The honest and good man ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.”
228. Marcus Aurelius quote on keeping a good attitude at all times
229. “Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn’t use them. At some point you have to recognize what world it is that you belong to; what power rules it and from what source you spring; that there is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.”
230. “How good it is when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this is the dead body of a bird or pig; and again, that the Falernian wine is the mere juice of grapes, and your purple edged robe simply the hair of a sheep soaked in shell-fish blood!
231. “Whatever time you choose is the right time. Not late, not early.”
232. “No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.”
233. “But death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble or shameful—and hence neither good nor bad.”
234. “In comparing sins (the way people do) Theophrastus says
235. Show me one person who cares how they act, someone for whom success is less important than the manner in which it is achieved. While out walking, who gives any thought to the act of walking itself? Who pays attention to the process of planning, not just the outcome?
236. Realize that many mistakes, even egregious ones, are the result of ignorance.
237. “If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”
238. “Kindness is invincible.” – Marcus Aurelius
239. “For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.”
240. “In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them.
241. “Adapt yourself to the life you have been given; and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you”
242. “The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it.”
243. “The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.”
244. “When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
245. “It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.” – Marcus Aurelius
246. “Choose not to be harmed, and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed, and you haven’t been.”
247. “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.”
248. “Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.”
249. “It loved to happen.”
250. “It is within our power not to make a judgement about something, and so not disturb our minds; for nothing in itself possesses the power to form our judgements.”
251. “Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.”
252. “If anyone can refute me‚ show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective‚ I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after.”
253. “Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.”
254. “Make sure you’re not made ‘Emperor,’ avoid that imperial stain. It can happen to you, so keep yourself simple, good, pure, saintly, plain, a friend of justice, god-fearing, gracious, affectionate, and strong for your proper work.”
255. “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for— the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
256. “Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint.”
257. 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.
258. “Joy for human beings lies in proper human work. And proper human work consists in: acts of kindness to other human beings, disdain for the stirrings of the senses, identifying trustworthy impressions, and contemplating the natural order and all that happens in keeping with it.”
259. “...life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.”
260. “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
261. “If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.”
262. “A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.”
263. “Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.”
264. “How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.” — Marcus Aurelius
265. “Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?” – Marcus Aurelius
266. “It’s normal to feel pain in your hands and feet, if you’re using your feet as feet and your hands as hands. And for a human being to feel stress is normal – if he’s living a normal life. And if it’s normal, how can it be bad?” – Marcus Aurelius
267. It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.
268. “Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.” – Marcus Aurelius
269. Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.
270. Being attached to many things, we are weighed down and dragged along with them.
271. “If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don’t imagine it impossible — for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.”
272. “Do not act as if you had a thousand years to live.”
273. “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” – Marcus Aurelius
274. “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”
275. “What is your vocation? To be a good person.“
276. “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
277. Marcus Aurelius quote on understanding the big picture
278. “If all emotions are common coin, then what is unique to the good man?
279. “Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?”
280. “Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.”
281. “Concentrate every minute like a Roman— like a man— on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can— if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered , irritable. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.”
282. “Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.” – Marcus Aurelius
283. “To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.” – Marcus Aurelius
284. “The mind freed from passions is an impenetrable fortress—a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time.”
285. “The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.”
286. “Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.” – Marcus Aurelius
287. “Don’t let yourself forget how many doctors have died, furrowing their brows over how many deathbeds. How many astrologers, after pompous forecasts about others’ ends. How many philosophers, after endless disquisitions on death and immortality. How many warriors, after inflicting thousands of casualties themselves. How many tyrants, after abusing the power of life and death atrociously, as if they were themselves immortal.
288. “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.”
289. “Do not be wise in words – be wise in deeds.” – Marcus Aurelius
290. “Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.”
291. “If you’re honest and straightforward and mean well, it should show in your eyes. It should be unmistakable.” – Marcus Aurelius
292. “Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.”
293. “The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” – Marcus Aurelius
294. Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
295. “That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of nuisance?”
296. “All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle.”
297. “The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.” – Marcus Aurelius
298. “When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”
299. “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
300. “Frightened of change? But what can exist without it?
301. “Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.”
302. “How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
303. “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.”
304. Don’t let outward appearances mislead you into thinking that someone with more prestige, power or some other distinction must on that account be happy.
305. “True understanding is to see the events of life in this way: 'You are here for my benefit, though rumor paints you otherwise.' And everything is turned to one's advantage when he greets a situation like this: You are the very thing I was looking for. Truly whatever arises in life is the right material to bring about your growth and the growth of those around you. This, in a word, is art-- and this art called 'life' is a practice suitable to both men and gods. Everything contains some special purpose and a hidden blessing; what then could be strange or arduous when all of life is here to greet you like an old and faithful friend?”
306. “Goodness—what defines a good person. Keep to it in everything you do.” – Marcus Aurelius
307. “Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility.” – Marcus Aurelius
308. “When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.” – Marcus Aurelius
309. “If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.”
310. You have to assemble your life yourself‚ action by action.
311. “Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying anything that deserves to be despised.” – Marcus Aurelius
312. “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. But he is injured who abides in his error and ignorance.”
313. First, do nothing inconsiderately or without a purpose. Second, make your acts refer to nothing else but a social end.
314. “What stands in the way becomes the way.” – Marcus Aurelius
315. “Make sure you’re not made ‘Emperor,’ avoid that imperial stain. It can happen to you, so keep yourself simple, good, pure, saintly, plain, a friend of justice, god-fearing, gracious, affectionate, and strong for your proper work. Fight to remain the person that philosophy wished to make you. Revere the gods, and look after each other. Life is short—the fruit of this life is a good character and acts for the common good.”
316. “Remember, nothing belongs to you but your flesh and blood—and nothing else is under your control.” – Marcus Aurelius
317. “What we do now echoes in eternity.” – Marcus Aurelius
318. “Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.” – Marcus Aurelius
319. “Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human - however imperfectly - and fully embrace the pursuit that you've embarked on.”
320. “How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.”
321. “God give me patience, to reconcile with what I am not able to change. Give me strength to change what I can. And give me wisdom to distinguish one from another.” – Marcus Aurelius
322. “Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?”
323. “To live happily is an inward power of the soul.”
324. “Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region it takes place. The whole earth a point in space - and most of it uninhabited.”
325. “Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.”
326. “When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.”
327. “That to expect bad people not to injure others is crazy. It's to ask the impossible. And to let them behave like that to other people but expect them to exempt you is arrogant--the act of a tyrant.”
328. “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
329. You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you.
330. Do not expect bad people to exempt you from their destructive ways.
331. “Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.”
332. “Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?”
333. “If you don’t have a consistent goal in life, you can’t live it in a consistent way.” – Marcus Aurelius
334. “Stay calm and serene regardless of what life throws at you.” – Marcus Aurelius
335. “Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day . . . The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”
336. “Do not be ashamed of help.” – Marcus Aurelius
337. Remember this, that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
338. Marcus Aurelius quote on using your time efficiently
339. “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
340. “That no one could ever have felt patronized by him – or in a position to patronize him. A sense of humour.”
341. “Pride is a master of deception: when you think you’re occupied in the weightiest business, that’s when he has you in his spell.” – Marcus Aurelius
342. “What we do now echoes in eternity.”
343. “Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.”
344. “Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.”
345. Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.
346. “Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.” – Marcus Aurelius
347. “When you arise in the moring, think of what a precious privelege it is to be alive-- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love”
348. “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
349. “Put an end once for all to this discussion of what a good man should be, and be one.” — Marcus Aurelius
350. “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.”
351. “How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”
352. “No matter how good a life you lead, you won’t please everyone. Someone will be glad to see you go.”
353. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
354. “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.” — Marcus Aurelius
355. 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.
356. “Let no act be done without a purpose.” – Marcus Aurelius
357. “If you seek tranquillity, do less.” Or (more accurately) do what’s essential—what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?” But we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well. To eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow.”
358. “God give me patience, to reconcile with what I am not able to change
359. “That which isn’t good for the hive, isn’t good for the bee.” – Marcus Aurelius
360. Just prove to me that you are trustworthy, high-minded and reliable, and that your intentions are benign – prove to me that your jar doesn’t have a hole in it – and you’ll find that I won’t even wait for you to open your heart to me, I’ll be the first to implore you to lend an ear to my own affairs.
361. “Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”
362. “Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.”
363. “Anywhere you can lead your life, you can lead a good one.” – Marcus Aurelius
364. “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.”
365. “There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.” – Marcus Aurelius
366. “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.”
367. “Epithets For Yourself: Upright. Modest. Straightforward. Sane. Cooperative. Disinterested…Maintain your claim to these epithets—without caring if others apply them to you or not…Set sail, then, with this handful of epithets to guide you. And steer a steady course, if you can, Like an emigrant to the islands of the blest. And if you feel yourself adrift—as if you’ve lost control—then hope for the best, and put in somewhere where you can regain it.”
368. “A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance — unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
369. “Don’t go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.”- Marcus Aurelius
370. “How soon will time cover all things.”
371. “Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful – and hence neither good nor bad.”
372. “Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too.”
373. “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
374. “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.”
375. “So you know how things stand. Now forget what they think of you. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Focus on that, and don't let anything distract you. You've wandered all over and finally realized that you never found what you were after: how to live. Not in syllogisms, not in money, or fame, or self-indulgence. Nowhere.”
376. “The man of ambition thinks to find his good in the operations of others; the man of pleasure in his own sensations; but the man of understanding in his own actions.”
377. “Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.”
378. “It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.”
379. “In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.”
380. If someone is incapable of distinguishing good things from bad and neutral things from either – well, how could such a person be capable of love? The power to love, then, belongs only to the wise man.
381. “People exist for one another. You can instruct or endure them.” – Marcus Aurelius
382. “I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me.
383. “Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option: to accept this event with humility, to treat this person as he should be treated, to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in.” – Marcus Aurelius
384. Death. The end of sense-perception, of being controlled by our emotions, of mental activity, of enslavement to our bodies.
385. “If something is difficult for you to accomplish, do not then think it impossible for any human being; rather, if it is humanly possible and corresponds to human nature, know that it is attainable by you as well.”
386. “Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.” – Marcus Aurelius
387. “He is so rich, he has no room to shit.”
388. “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”
389. “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”
390. “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.”
391. “Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet. What thoughts now occupy my mind? Is it not fear, suspicion, desire, or something like that?”
392. “What does it matter to you if they say x about you, or think y?” – Marcus Aurelius
393. “Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.”
394. “A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.” – Marcus Aurelius
395. “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.”
396. “Whatever happens, happens such as you are either formed by nature able to bear it, or not able to bear it. If such as you are by nature form’d able to bear, bear it and fret not: But if such as you are not naturally able to bear, don’t fret; for when it has consum’d you, itself will perish. Remember, however, you are by nature form’d able to bear whatever it is in the power of your own opinion to make supportable or tolerable, according as you conceive it advantageous, or your duty, to do so.”
397. “The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
398. “Your character is simply the sum of your thoughts over time.” – Marcus Aurelius
399. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
400. The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
401. 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.
402. “In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.”.
403. “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
404. “I’m going to be meeting with people today who talk too much – people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won’t be surprised or disturbed, for I can’t imagine a world without such people.” – Marcus Aurelius
405. “On every occasion a man should ask himself, Is this one of the unnecessary things?”- Marcus Aurelius
406. “We are like many pellets of incense falling on the same altar. Some collapse sooner, others later, but it makes no difference.”
407. “Everything of the body is a river. Everything of the soul is dream and vapour. Life is war and the abode of a stranger. The only fame after death is oblivion.”
408. “Hippocrates cured many illnesses—and then fell ill and
409. “To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind himself.”
410. “Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?” – Marcus Aurelius
411. “Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”
412. “What else did you expect from helping someone out? Isn’t it enough that you’ve done what your nature demands? You want a salary for it too? As if your eyes expected a reward for seeing, or your feet for walking. That’s what they were made for.”
413. “I can control my thoughts as necessary; then how can I be troubled? What is outside my mind means nothing to it. Absorb that lesson and your feet stand firm.”
414. “Among men who rise to fame and leadership two types are recognizable—those who are born with a belief in themselves and those in whom it is a slow growth dependent on actual achievement. To the men of the last type their own success is a constant surprise, and its fruits the more delicious, yet to be tested cautiously with a haunting sense of doubt whether it is not all a dream. In that doubt lies true modesty, not the sham of insincere self-depreciation but the modesty of “moderation,” in the Greek sense. It is poise, not pose.”
415. “Failure to read what is happening in another's soul is not easily seen as a cause of unhappiness: but those who fail to attend the motions of their own soul are necessarily unhappy.”
416. “It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being.” – Marcus Aurelius
417. “While it’s true that someone can impede our actions, they can’t impede our intentions and our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional and adaptable. For the mind adapts and converts any obstacle to its action into a means of achieving it. That which is an impediment to action is turned to advance action. The obstacle on the path becomes the way.”
418. “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
419. “Receive without conceit, release without struggle.” – Marcus Aurelius
420. “The truly fortunate person has created his own good fortune through good habits of the soul, good intentions, and good actions.” – Marcus Aurelius
421. “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.”
422. Recognize that others can hurt you only if you let them.
423. Avoid quick judgments of others' actions.
424. Maintain self-control.
425. “fame in a world like this is worthless.”
426. “It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.”
427. “Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.”
428. “8. It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you—inside or out.”
429. “People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. . . . So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”
430. “Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.”
431. Understand that people exist to help one another.
432. “Keep a list before your mind of those who burned with anger and resentment about something, of even the most renowned for success, misfortune, evil deeds, or any special distinction. Then ask yourself, how did that work out? Smoke and dust, the stuff of simple myth trying to be legend…”
433. “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more
434. “If they’ve made a mistake, correct them gently and show them where they went wrong. If you can’t do that, then the blame lies with you. Or no one.” – Marcus Aurelius
435. “Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.”
436. Practice kindness.
437. “Casting aside other things, hold to the precious few; and besides bear in mind that every man lives only the present, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or is uncertain. Brief is man's life and small the nook of the earth where he lives; brief, too, is the longest posthumous fame, buoyed only by a succession of poor human beings who will very soon die and who know little of themselves, much less of someone who died long ago.”
438. “Dig deep within yourself, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging.”
439. “Whenever you want to cheer yourself up, consider the good qualities of your companions, for example, the energy of one, the modesty of another, the generosity of yet another, and some other quality of another; for nothing cheers the heart as much as the images of excellence reflected in the character of our companions, all brought before us as fully as possible. Therefore, keep these images ready at hand.”
440. “The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
441. “Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
442. “Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains - a dream you have cherished only too fondly yourself. But such fancies are wholly unworthy of a philosopher, since at any moment you choose you can retire within yourself. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul; above all, he who possesses resources in himself, which he need only contemplate to secure immediate ease of mind - the ease that is but another word for a well-ordered spirit. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself.”
443. 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.
444. “Dream big dreams; only big dreams have the power to move mens souls…” – Marcus Aurelius
445. 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.
446. “We should remark the grace and fascination that there is even in the incidentals of Nature's processes.. When a loaf of bread,. for instance,. is in the oven,. crack appear in it here and there; and these flaws,. though not intended in the baking,. have a rightness of their own,. and sharpen the appetite..”
447. “Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.”
448. “Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.”
449. “Do not be ashamed of help.”
450. “Stop wandering about! You aren't likely to read your own notebooks, or ancient histories, or the anthologies you've collected to enjoy in your old age. Get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue-if you care for yourself at all-and do it while you can.”
451. “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” – Marcus Aurelius
452. “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
453. “Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.”
454. No man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.
455. “The first step: Don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all. And before long you’ll be no one, nowhere—like Hadrian, like Augustus. The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.”
456. “The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” — Marcus Aurelius
457. “Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’”
458. “Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
459. “The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.”
460. No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.
461. “The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don’t.” – Marcus Aurelius
462. “If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, ‘I awake to do the work of a man.”
463. “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be One.”
464. “No role is so well suited to philosophy as the one you happen to be in right now.”
465. “Never forget that the universe is a single living organism possessed of one substance and one soul, holding all things suspended in a single consciousness and creating all things with a single purpose that they might work together spinning and weaving and knotting whatever comes to pass.”
466. “A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.” — Marcus Aurelius
467. “Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? Art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul?”
468. Death and pain are not frightening, it’s the fear of pain and death we need to fear. Which is why we praise the poet who wrote, ‘Death is not fearful, but dying like a coward is.’
469. “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
470. “Whatever anyone does or says, for my part I’m bound to the good. In the same way an emerald or gold or purple might always proclaim: ‘whatever anyone does or says, I must be what I am and show my true colors.’”
471. “Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”
472. “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.”
473. “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
474. “Does the emerald lose its beauty for lack of admiration?”
475. “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.” – Marcus Aurelius
476. “Yes, keep on degrading yourself, soul. But soon your chance at dignity will be gone. Everyone gets one life. Yours is almost used up, and instead of treating yourself with respect, you have entrusted your own happiness to the souls of others.”
477. Do not overly exalt yourself.
478. “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.”
479. “In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.” — Marcus Aurelius
480. “A Man's life is dyed the color of his imagination.”
481. 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.
482. “It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.”
483. “Asia and Europe: tiny corners of the Cosmos. Every sea: a mere drop. Mount Athos: a lump of dirt. The present moment is the smallest point in all eternity. All is microscopic, changeable, disappearing. All things come from that faraway place, either originating directly from that governing part which is common to all, or else following from it as consequences. So even the gaping jaws of the lion, deadly poison, and all harmful things like thorns or an oozing bog are products of that awesome and noble source. Do not imagine these things to be alien to that which you revere, but turn your Reason to the source of all things.”
484. Marcus Aurelius quote on not letting power go to your head
485. “You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.”
486. “How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.” – Marcus Aurelius
487. “In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?”
488. “There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.”
489. “In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.” – Marcus Aurelius.
490. “…praise does not make anything better or worse.”
491. “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.”
492. “It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.” – Marcus Aurelius
493. The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
494. Yes, you can – if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.
495. “Receive without pride, let go without attachment.”
496. “Whoever values peace of mind and the health of the soul will live the best of all possible lives.”
497. “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.”
498. “Hour by hour resolve firmly to do what comes to hand with dignity, and with humanity, independence, and justice. Allow your mind freedom from all other considerations. This you can do, if you will approach each action as though it were your last, dismissing the desire to create an impression, the admiration of self, the discontent with your lot. See how little man needs to master, for his days to flow on in quietness and piety: he has but to observe these few counsels, and the gods will ask nothing more.”
499. “Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.”
500. “You have the power within you to endure anything, for your mere opinion can render it tolerable, perhaps even acceptable, by regarding it as an opportunity for enlightenment or a matter of duty.”
501. “Be content to seem what you really are.” – Marcus Aurelius
502. “When you’ve done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?”
503. “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
504. “Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both of them together: your own existence and the things that happen to you”
505. “Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.
506. “"Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial”
507. “If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.” — Marus Aurelius
508. “Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside.”
509. “The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”
510. How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.
511. “No man is happy who does not think himself so.”
512. “Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.” – Marcus Aurelius
513. Marcus Aurelius quote on the importance of building a well-rounded team
514. “That which isn’t good for the hive, isn’t good for the bee.”
515. “This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material?”
516. “It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won’t tire and give up, if you aren’t busying yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed.”
517. “It is not the actions of others which trouble us (for those actions are controlled by their governing part), but rather it is our own judgments. Therefore remove those judgments and resolve to let go of your anger, and it will already be gone. How do you let go? By realizing that such actions are not shameful to you.”
518. “In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors.”
519. “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks.”
520. “Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”
521. “You shouldn’t give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don’t care at all.”
522. “Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied, if thou dost not succeed in doing everything according to right principles; but when thou bast failed, return back again, and be content if the greater part of what thou doest is consistent with man's nature, and love this to which thou returnest”
523. Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
524. Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.
525. Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.
526. “Kindness is invincible, but only when it’s sincere, with no hypocrisy or faking. For what can even the most malicious person do if you keep showing kindness and, if given the chance, you gently point out where they went wrong—right as they are trying to harm you?”
527. “Remember two things: i. that everything has always been the same, and keeps recurring, and it makes no difference whether you see the same things recur in a hundred years or two hundred, or in an infinite period; ii. that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have you cannot lose.”
528. “That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not".”
529. “Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. Dying...or busy with other assignments. Because dying, too, is one of our assignments in life. There as well: "To do what needs doing." Look inward. Don't let the true nature of anything elude you. Before long, all existing things will be transformed, to rise like smoke (assuming all things become one), or be dispersed in fragments...to move from one unselfish act to another with God in mind. Only there, delight and stillness...when jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself, and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help. You'll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep going back to it.”
530. “Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions.” – Marcus Aurelius
531. The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.
532. “Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.” — Marcus Aurelius
533. “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.”
534. “Kindness is unconquerable, so long as it is without flattery or hypocrisy. For what can the most insolent man do to you, if you contrive to be kind to him, and if you have the chance gently advise and calmly show him what is right...and point this out tactfully and from a universal perspective. But you must not do this with sarcasm or reproach, but lovingly and without anger in your soul.”
535. “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
536. “40. The gods either have power or they have not. If they have not, why pray to them? If they have, then instead of praying to be granted or spared such-and-such a thing, why not rather pray to be delivered from dreading it, or lusting for it, or grieving over it? Clearly, if they can help a man at all, they can help him in this way. You will say, perhaps, ‘But all that is something they have put in my own power.’ Then surely it were better to use your power and be a free man, than to hanker like a slave and a beggar for something that is not in your power. Besides, who told you the gods never lend their aid even towards things that do lie in our own power? Begin praying in this way, and you will see. Where another man prays ‘Grant that I may possess this woman,’ let your own prayer be, ‘Grant that I may not lust to possess her.’ Where he prays, ‘Grant me to be rid of such-and-such a one,’ you pray, ‘Take from me my desire to be rid of him.’ Where he begs, ‘Spare me the loss of my precious child,’ beg rather to be delivered from the terror of losing him. In short, give your petitions a turn in this direction, and see what comes.”
537. “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
538. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” – Marcus Aurelius
539. “First, do nothing inconsiderately or without a purpose. Second, make your acts refer to nothing else but a social end.”
540. “If it is not right do not do it. If it is not true do not say it.”
541. “Use the setback to practice other virtues.” – Marcus Aurelius
542. “Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.”
543. “Be your own master, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal creature.”