Quotes from Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

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

Very little is needed to make a happy life.

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

Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man—yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.

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

This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.

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.

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

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

To change your mind and to follow him who sets you right is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.

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

Remember that no man loses other life than that which he lives, nor lives other than that which he loses.

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

It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.

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

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.

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.

All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.

A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not always he that has done something.

As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land but the fame that comes after is oblivion.

Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live death is nigh at hand while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.

Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.

Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.

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.