Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.

To expect an impossibility is madness.

You will quickly be reduced to ashes and skeleton. And it may be you will have a name left you, and it may be not. And what is a name? Nothing but sound and echo.

As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.

You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.

Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.

Wherever a man lives, he may live well.

Look within. Within is the fountain of the good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

Remember that all is opinion.

It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it.

It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.

Pray look upon the plants and birds, the ants, spiders, and bees, and you will see them all exerting their nature, and busy in their station. Pray, shall not a man act like a man?

Do you see what little is required of a man to live a well-tempered and god-fearing life? Obey these precepts, and the gods will ask nothing more.

Death--a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.

Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.

The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.

Reason and the reasoning faculty need no foreign assistance, but are sufficient for their own purposes. They move within themselves, and make directly for the point in view. Wherefore, acts in accordance with them are called right acts, for they lead along the right road.

A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.

Accustom yourself to attend carefully to what is said by another, and as much as it is possible, try to inhabit the speaker's mind.

All is ephemeral--fame and the famous as well.

All our efforts must be directed towards an end, or we will act in vain. If it is not the right end, we will fail utterly.

All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.

As if you had died and your life had extended only to this present moment, use the surplus that is left to you to live from this time onward according to nature.

Be modest and simple in your deportment, and treat with indifference whatever lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race; obey God.