Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

And keep in mind too that pain often comes in disguise—as drowsiness, fever, loss of appetite.… When you're bothered by things like that, remind yourself: "I'm giving in to pain.

Constant awareness that everything is born from change. The knowledge that there is nothing nature loves more than to alter what exists and make new things like it. All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the ones that make plants or children? Go deeper.

If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness, and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it? And what is the harm to the common weal?

Don't waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people— unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You'll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing, and why, and what they're saying, and what they're thinking, and what they're up to, and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from focusing on your own mind.

And so shalt thou confess, if thou dost observe it. For sooner mayst thou find a thing earthly, where no earthly thing is, than find a man that naturally can live by himself alone.

If it be not fitting, do it not. If it be not true, speak it not. Ever maintain thine own purpose and resolution free from all compulsion and necessity

Sin is the the corruption of reason. That's why humans are capable of such evils, while unreasoning animals are not.

for no veil clothes a star.

En primer lugar, nada hagas sin reflexionar ni sin fin alguno, y en segundo, no lleves otro fin sino el bien de la sociedad.

Whatever happens to every man, this is for the interest of the universal:

Never esteem of anything as profitable, which shall ever constrain thee either to break thy faith, or to lose thy modesty; to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to dissemble, to lust after anything, that requireth the secret of walls or veils.

It is instructive to compare the Meditations with another famous book, the Imitation of Christ. There is the same ideal of self-control in both. It should be a man's task, says the Imitation, 'to overcome himself, and every day to be stronger than himself.

In the morning purpose, in the evening discuss the manner, what thou hast been this day, in word, work, and thought.

I don't know whether the gods hear and answer our prayers, or not. Either way, why not pray for the strength to let go of your desires and fears? Wouldn't it be better to be content with what you already have and to fear nothing? Try praying this way—for an inner change, rather than an outer one—and see what happens.

Who himself is not the cause of his own unrest? Reflect how no one is hampered by any other; and that all is as thinking makes it so.

Thou canst remove out of the way many useless things among those which disturb thee, for they lie entirely in thy opinion; and thou wilt then gain for thyself ample space by comprehending the whole universe in thy mind, and by contemplating the eternity of time, and observing the rapid change of every several thing, how short is the time from birth to dissolution, and the illimitable time before birth as well as the equally boundless time after dissolution. All

Of Diognetus, not to busy myself about vain things, and not easily to believe those things, which are commonly spoken, by such as take upon them to work wonders, and by sorcerers, or prestidigitators, and impostors; concerning the power of charms, and their driving out of demons, or evil spirits; and the like.

37. If you've seen the present, then you've seen everything -- as it's been since the beginning, as it will be forever. The same substance, the same form. All of it.

4. MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER To avoid the public schools, to hire good private teachers, and to accept the resulting costs as money well-spent.

39. The things ordained for you -- teach yourself to be at one with those. And the people who share them with you -- treat them with love. With real love.

si te elevaran en el aire y miraras hacia abajo las cosas humanas y su versatilidad, piensa que las despreciarías al verlas todas al mismo tiempo que las que habitan por todo el aire y la atmósfera[489]. Y que cuantas veces seas elevado verás lo mismo, lo semejante, su brevedad. De eso depende el delirio de grandeza.

All things are drawn toward what is like them, if such a thing exists. All earthly things feel the earth's tug. All wet things flow together. And airy things as well, so they have to be forcibly prevented from mixing. Fire is naturally drawn upward by that higher fire, but ready to ignite at the slightest touch of other, earthly flame.

Don't ever forget these things: The nature of the world. My nature. How I relate to the world. What proportion of it I make up. That you are part of nature, and no one can prevent you from speaking and acting in harmony with it, always.

32. I am composed of a body and a soul. Things that happen to the body are meaningless. It cannot discriminate among them. Nothing has meaning to my mind except its own actions. Which are within its own control. And it's only the immediate that matter. Its past and future actions too are meaningless.