Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

how the mind can participate in the sensations of the body and yet maintain its serenity, and focus on its own well-being.

And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapour, and life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.

For it may happen if thou dost not take heed. Keep thyself therefore, truly simple, good, sincere, grave, free from all ostentation, a lover of that which is just, religious, kind, tender-hearted, strong and vigorous to undergo anything that becomes thee.

What is divine deserves our respect because it is good; what is human deserves our affection because it is like us. And our pity too, sometimes, for its inability to tell good from bad- as terrible a blindness as the kind that can't tell white from black.

Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: Is this the condition that I feared?

Aunque sean dos, el camino es uno sólo.

There is one universe out of all things, one god pervading all things, one substance, one law, one common reason in all intelligent beings, and one truth.

God sees all our directing minds stripped of their material vessels, their husks and their dross. His contact is only between his own intelligence and what has flowed from him into these channels of ours. If you train yourself to do the same, you will be rid of what so much distracts you. Hardly likely, is it, that one blind to the enveloping flesh will spend his time eyeing clothes, houses, reputation, or any other such trappings and stage scenery?

O imagination, go away, I intreat thee by the gods, as thou didst come, for I want thee not. But thou art come according to thy old fashion. I am not angry with thee: only go away.

What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only one, philosophy.

No more roundabout discussion of what makes a good man. Be one!

In themselves, the things of the world have no effect on the mind; they can't get through to it, they can't sway it, and they can't stir it.

17. El perseguir imposibles es locura. Y es imposible que los malvados no cometan tales acciones.

no ser tramposo, tener nobleza, aguantar los trabajos, despreciar los placeres, no quejarse de tu destino, necesitar poco, la buena disposición, la liberalidad, la sencillez, no ser charlatán, la grandeza. ¿

Alexander the Macedonian and his groom by death were brought to the same state; for either they were received among the same seminal principles of the universe, or they were alike dispersed among the atoms. Consider

3. Pointless bustling of processions, opera arias, herds of sheep and cattle, military exercises. A bone flung to pet poodles, a little food in the fish tank. The miserable servitude of ants, scampering of frightened mice, puppets jerked on strings. Surrounded as we are by all of this, we need to practice acceptance. Without disdain. But remembering that our own worth is measured by what we devote our energy to.

that their happiness doth consist in a disposition to, and in the practice of righteousness;

that no one does the wrong thing deliberately;

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.

En tu mano está reavivar continuamente su llama. Puedo

Conservar-se forte e constante na trilha da moderação e da sobriedade em todas as situações é marca de um homem possuidor de uma alma íntegra e imbatível; e foi assim que ele se revelou na doença de Máximo.

Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.

You should always be ready to apply these two rules of action, the first, to do nothing other than what the kingly and law-making art ordains for the benefits of humankind, and, the second, to be prepared to change your mind if someone is at hand to put you right and guide you away from some groundless opinion.

Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of all those applauding hands. The people who praise us—how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region in which it all takes place. The whole earth a point in space—and most of it uninhabited