Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

There are two features that are common to the minds of gods, men, and any other rational beings there may be: they are immune to external obstruction, and what they count as good is right thinking and right action, which they make the limit of their desire.

Endeavor to have power of myself, and in nothing to be carried about; to be cheerful and courageous in all sudden chances and accidents, as in sicknesses: to love mildness, and moderation, and gravity: and to do my business, whatsoever it be, thoroughly, and without querulousness.

Whatsoever any man either doth or saith, thou must be good;" "doth any man offend? It is against himself that he doth offend: why should it trouble thee?" The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. "The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.

No man can hinder thee to live as thy nature doth require. Nothing can happen unto thee, but what the common good of nature doth require.

If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don't imagine it impossible—for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.

Consideras, en resumen, que es desgracia del hombre lo que no es desacierto de la naturaleza humana? ¿

You can strip away many unnecessary troubles which lie wholly in your own judgement. And you will immediately make large and wide room for yourself by grasping the whole universe in your thought, contemplating the eternity of time, and reflecting on the rapid change of each thing in every part. How brief the gap from birth to dissolution, how vast the gulf of time before your birth, and an equal infinity after your dissolution.

Thou mayest live out thy life with none to constrain thee in the utmost peace of mind even though the whole world cry out against thee what they will

hundred, or in an infinite period; ii. that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.

habla y actúa en todo según lo que sea más sano. Ese planteamiento te libera de golpes, de vacilación, de preocupación y afectación.

What a shame that the mind can command the face to assume whatever look or expression it pleases, but cannot command itself and govern its own thoughts.

38. Look into their minds, at what the wise do and what they don't.

The motion of the mind is not as the motion of a dart. For the mind when it is wary and cautelous, and by way of diligent circumspection turneth herself many ways, may then as well be said to go straight on to the object, as when it useth no such circumspection.

neither was there any man that ever thought himself undervalued by him, or that could find in his heart, to think himself a better man than he.

and falling upon that earth, out of whose gifts and fruits my father gathered his seed, my mother her blood, and my nurse her milk, out of which for so many years I have been

How to act: Never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings. Don't gussy up your thoughts. No surplus words or unnecessary actions. Let the spirit in you represent a man, an adult, a citizen, a Roman, a ruler. Taking up his post like a soldier and patiently awaiting his recall from life. Needing no oath or witness. Cheerfulness. Without requiring other people's help. Or serenity supplied by others. To stand up straight—not straightened.

Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power. Take away then, when thou choosest, thy opinion, and like a mariner who has doubled the promontory, thou wilt find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay.

But we have to sleep sometime.… Agreed. But nature set a limit on that—as it did on eating and drinking. And you're over the limit. You've had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you're still below your quota.

No malogres la parte de vida que te queda en averiguar vidas ajenas, a no ser que te propongas algún fin útil a la comunidad.

He does only what is his to do, and considers constantly what the world has in store for him—doing his best, and trusting that all is for the best. For we carry our fate with us—and it carries us.

with food and drink and magic spells Seeking some novel way to frustrate death.

Gladly surrender yourself to Clotho: let her spin your thread into whatever web she wills.

To pierce and penetrate into the estate of every one's understanding that thou hast to do with: as also to make the estate of thine own open, and penetrable to any other.

say to thyself, This day I shalt have to do with an idle curious man, with an unthankful man, a railer, a crafty, false, or an envious man; an unsociable uncharitable man. All these ill qualities have happened unto them, through ignorance of that which is truly good and truly bad.