Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole; and everything formal (causal) is very soon taken back into the universal reason; and the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.

Reason is free from hatred, has no desire to harm anyone or anything, and will never direct you to do evil. Reason works to the benefit of all things.

for let that which suffers, look to itself.

To accept it without arrogance, to let it go with indifference.

Te embarcaste, navegaste, arribaste. Desembarca. Si es a otra vida, nada está vacío de dioses, tampoco allí. Si es en la insensibilidad[212], dejarás de soportar sufrimientos y placeres, dejarás de ser esclavo para un recipiente tan inferior como superior es la parte que manda comparada con la que sirve, porque mandan la inteligencia y el espíritu divino mientras que son sirvientes la tierra y los despojos sanguinolentos.

56. Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly

All those people who came into the world with me and have already left it.

The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now moulds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else; and each of these things subsists for a very short time. But it is no hardship for the vessel to be broken up, just as there was none in its being fastened together

13. Have you reason? 'I have.' Then why not use it? If reason does its part, what more would you ask?

There were under the early empire two rival schools which practically divided the field between them, Stoicism and Epicureanism.

Your mind is your only strength; your reason is your only power.

What is this, fundamentally? What is its nature and substance, its reason for being? What is it doing in the world? How long is it here for?

10. Remorse is annoyance at yourself for having passed up something that's to your benefit. But if it's to your benefit it must be good—something a truly good person would be concerned about. But no truly good person would feel remorse at passing up pleasure. So it cannot be to your benefit, or good.

obsequious courting of the mob

wars broke out on all sides. In the east, Vologeses III of Parthia began a long-meditated revolt by destroying a whole Roman Legion and invading Syria (162). Verus was sent off in hot haste to quell this rising; and he fulfilled his trust by plunging into drunkenness

Always bear this in mind; and another thing too, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.

Do not imagine that, if something is hard for you to achieve, it is therefore impossible for any man; but rather consider anything that is humanly possible and appropriate to lie within your own reach too.

49. Look at the past—empire succeeding empire—and from that, extrapolate the future: the same thing. No escape from the rhythm of events. Which is why observing life for forty years is as good as a thousand. Would you really see anything new?

The Stoic system of physics was materialism with an infusion of pantheism. In contradiction to Plato's view that the Ideas, or Prototypes, of phenomena alone really exist, the Stoics held that material objects alone existed; but immanent in the material universe was a spiritual force which acted through them, manifesting itself under many forms, as fire, aether, spirit, soul, reason, the ruling principle.

47. Suppose that a god announced that you were going to die tomorrow "or the day after." Unless you were a complete coward you wouldn't kick up a fuss about which day it was—what difference could it make? Now recognize that the difference between years from now and tomorrow is just as small.

The highest good of man is consciously to work with God for the common good, and this is the sense in which the Stoic tried to live in accord with nature. In the individual it is virtue alone which enables him to do this; as Providence rules the universe, so virtue in the soul must rule

Que la divinidad que está en ti sea guía de un ser varonil, respetable, social, romano, de un jefe que se coloca en su puesto como alguien que, liberado, esperara el toque de retreta para escapar de la vida, sin necesidad de un juramento ni de ningún hombre como testigo[213]. Por dentro, radiante[214] sin necesidad de servidumbre o tranquilidad exteriores. Hay que ser recto, no corregido.

If you care about yourself at all, come to your own aid while there's still time.

accept it without arrogance, to let it go with indifference.