Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

If therefore it be a thing external that causes thy grief, know, that it is not that properly that doth cause it, but thine own conceit and opinion concerning the thing:

that thou mayest not die murmuring, but cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful to the gods.

queda como propio de la persona buena desear y conformarse con lo que le ocurre y estar entrelazado con su destino. Al

Nothing that goes on in anyone else's mind can harm you.

I must ask myself this question, and inquire, what have I now in this part of me which they call the ruling principle? And whose soul have I now? That of a child, or of a young man, or of a feeble woman, or of a tyrant, or of a domestic animal, or of a wild beast?

When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance, revert at once to yourself, and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help. You'll have a better group of harmony if you keep on going back to it.

As virtue and wickedness consist not in passion, but in action; so neither doth the true good or evil of a reasonable charitable man consist in passion, but in operation and action.

If he is going wrong, teach him kindly and show him what he has failed to see. If you can't do that, blame yourself – or perhaps not even yourself.

Practice even at the things that you have lost all hope of achieving. For the left hand, though inefficient at everything else through lack of practice, is more powerful than the right when it comes to gripping the bridle; for it has had good practice at that.

Onaj tko je sav usplahiren zbog budu?e slave propušta shvatiti kako ?e svi koji ga pamte ubrzo biti mrtvi - kao i on.

If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, honesty, self-control, courage—than a mind satisfied that it has succeeded in enabling you to act rationally, and satisfied to accept what's beyond its control—if you find anything better than that, embrace it without reservations—it must be an extraordinary thing indeed—and enjoy it to the full.

whom thou dost stand in fear of what they shall judge of thee, what they themselves judge of themselves.

The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.

You want the praise of people who kick themselves every 15 minutes. The praise of people who despise themselves?

15. Remember: you shouldn't be surprised that a fig tree produces figs, nor the world what it produces. A good doctor isn't surprised when his patients have fevers, or a helmsman when the wind blows against him.

Always have these two principles in readiness. First, to do only what the reason inherent in kingly and judicial power prescribes for the benefit of mankind. Second, to change your ground, if in fact there is someone to correct and guide you away from some notion.

Todo ser, en cierto modo, es el germen de otro que de él ha de renacer. Pero tú no sueles imaginarte más semillas que las que se echan en la tierra o en la matriz: y esto es ser demasiado ingenuo.

simply and of your own free will, choose the higher and hold fast to that

that thou be careful to prevent whatsoever is idle and impertinent: but especially, whatsoever is curious and malicious

Whensoever by some present hard occurrences thou art constrained to be in some sort troubled and vexed, return unto thyself as soon as may be, and be not out of tune longer than thou must needs. For so shalt thou be the better able to keep thy part another time, and to maintain the harmony, if thou dost use thyself to this continually; once out, presently to have recourse unto it, and to begin again.

His mood is one of strenuous weariness; he does his duty as a good soldier, waiting for the sound of the trumpet which shall sound the retreat; he has not that cheerful confidence which led Socrates through a life no less noble, to a death which was to bring him into the company of gods he had worshipped and men whom he had revered.

our own worth is measured by what we devote our energy to.  4.

either there is a God, and then all is well; or if all things go by chance and fortune, yet mayest thou use thine own providence in those things that concern thee properly; and then art thou well.

The directing mind is that which wakes itself, adapts itself, makes itself of whatever nature it wishes, and makes all that happens to it appear in the way it wants.