Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher.
Here is a collection of Marcus Aurelius most famous quotes: Marcus Aurelius Quotes about Love, Life, Beauty, Happiness, People, Thoughts, Wisdom, Optimism and Positivity. Quotes and Sayings on Change, Discipline, Strength, Inner-Strength, Integrity, Self-Control, Morality, Truth, Revenge, History, Future, Doing-Right, Life and Death by Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes and Sayings
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
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.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
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.
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
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.
What we do now echoes in eternity.
Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...
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.
Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.
The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.
A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.
The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
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.
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
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.
Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.
Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.
Where a man can live, he can also live well.
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.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.
A man should be upright, not be kept upright.
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?
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
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.
Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.
Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.
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.
A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
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.
The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.
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.
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.
Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
Each day provides its own gifts.
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
Receive without conceit, release without struggle.
Poverty is the mother of crime.
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
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.
Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.
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.
If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.
To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life
Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.
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.
A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.
The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
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.
Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.
Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.
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."
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.
Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.
Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.
Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
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.
It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.
Do what you will. Even if you tear yourself apart, most people will continue doing the same things.
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.
Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.
How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.
Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.
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.
Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.
Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
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.
Choose not to be harmed—and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed—and you haven't been.
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.
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.
Be content to seem what you really are.
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.
Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.
Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?
Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.
Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.
Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.
There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.
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.
Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
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.
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.
The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
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.
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.
Confine yourself to the present.
Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.
The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.
How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.
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.
Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.
All things fade and quickly turn to myth.
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?
We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.
I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.
Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.
Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.
That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.
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.
Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.
What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.
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.
Adapt yourself to the life you have been given; and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you
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.
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.
What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.
It loved to happen.
Everything - a horse, a vine - is created for some duty.... For what task, then, were you yourself created?
Life is opinion.
All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.
The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.
No man is happy who does not think himself so.
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.
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.
A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.
Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.
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.
That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.
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.
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.
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.
Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.
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.
Anger cannot be dishonest.
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.
As far as you can, get into the habit of asking yourself in relation to any action taken by another: "What is his point of reference here?" But begin with yourself: examine yourself first.
When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.
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.
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.
Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.
When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.
Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.
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.
Do not be ashamed of help.
To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.
You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.
Look to nothing, not even for a moment except to reason.
Everything is banal in experience, fleeting in duration, sordid in content; in all respects the same today as generations now dead and buried have found it to be.
Soon, you will have forgotten everything. Soon, everybody will have forgotten you.
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.
Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.
Men exist for the sake of one another.
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.
It's the truth I'm after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
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
Kindness is invincible.
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
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.
Whatever time you choose is the right time. Not late, not early.
It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible.
The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.
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.
We are the other of the other.
In everything that you do, pause and ask yourself if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives you of this
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.
Today I escaped all circumstance, or rather I cast out all circumstance, for it was not outside me, but within my judgements.
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.
The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.
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.
For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason.
The best revenge is not to do as they do.
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.
Not to waste time on nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it. Not to be obsessed with quail-fighting or other crazes like that.
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. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
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.
Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.
It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.
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.
Nothing is more scandalous than a man that is proud of his humility.
He is so rich, he has no room to shit.
Be your own master, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal creature.
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.
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.
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.
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.
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.
Does the emerald lose its beauty for lack of admiration?
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.
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.
How soon will time cover all things.
In an expression of true gratitude, sadness is conspicuous only by its absence.
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.
A Man's life is dyed the color of his imagination.
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.
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.
This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material?
Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.
Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.
To read with diligence; not to rest satisfied with a light and superficial knowledge, nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken.
Ask yourself at every moment, Is this necessary?
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.
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself.
Live every day as if they last.
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.
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.
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.
Your life is what your thoughts make it.
It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being.
Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility.
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.
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.
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.
Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
Within ten days you will seem a god to those to whom you are now a beast and an ape, if you will return to your principles and the worship of reason.
Swiftly the remembrance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity.
All is ephemeral, both what remembers and what is remembered.
Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
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.
Do not let the future disturb you, for you will arrive there, if you arrive, with the same reason you now apply to the present.
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.
Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? Art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul?
The universe is change, and life mere opinion.
In everything that you do, pause and ask yourself if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives you of this.
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.
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.
Praise does not make anything better or worse.
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.
It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you ― inside or out.
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.
Anger and the sorrow it produces are far more harmful than the things which make us angry.
All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle.
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.
Choose not to be harmed ― and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed ― and you haven't been.
There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.
Its a dream, a fearful dream, life is.
All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike.
Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions ― not outside.
Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.
No matter how good a life you lead, you won't please everyone. Someone will be glad to see you go.
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