Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

49. To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.

Apenas amanezca, hazte en tu interior esta cuenta: hoy tropezaré con algún entremetido, con algún ingrato, con algún insolente, con un doloso, un envidioso, un egoísta.

la naturaleza también nos dio su medida, también nos la dio del comer y del beber, no obstante, tú sobrepasas lo que es suficiente. Pero

keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment

I am half naked, neither have I bread to eat, and yet I depart not from reason, saith one.

In your capacity to see it. Stop doing that and everything will be fine. Let the part of you that makes that judgment keep quiet even if the body it's attached to is stabbed or burnt, or stinking with pus, or consumed by cancer. Or to put it another way: It needs to realize that what happens to everyone—bad and good alike—is neither good nor bad. That what happens in every life—lived naturally or not—is neither natural nor unnatural.

He also that pursues after pleasures, as that which is truly good and flies from pains, as that which is truly evil: is impious.

Be content to seem what you really are.

that Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things which are assigned to thee by the common nature;

The cohesiveness and beauty that intelligence lends to the face—that's what the body needs. But it should come without effort.

4. 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.

That I had the kind of brother I did. One whose character challenged me to improve my own. One whose love and affection enriched my life. That my children weren't born stupid or physically deformed. That I wasn't

Again, he that feareth pains and crosses in this world, feareth some of those things which some time or other must needs happen in the world.

We should listen only to those whose lives conform to nature. And the others? He bears in mind what sort of people they are—both at home and abroad, by night as well as day—and who they spend their time with. And he cares nothing for their praise—men who can't even meet their own standards.

6. The best revenge is not to be like that.

Whensoever thou wilt rejoice thyself, think and meditate upon those good parts and especial gifts, which thou hast observed in any of them that live with thee: as industry in one, in another modesty, in another bountifulness, in another some other thing. For nothing can so much rejoice thee, as the resemblances and parallels

Que no te aparte que detrás venga la crítica o la palabra de algunos, por el contrario, si está bien hecho o bien dicho, no te subestimes. Ellos

5. 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.

His operations were followed by complete success; but the troubles of late years had been too much for his constitution, at no time robust, and on March 17, 180, he died in Pannonia.

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. But I

To praise without bombast; to display expertise without pretension.

when things lay claim to our trust—to lay them bare and see how pointless they are, to strip away the legend that encrusts them.

Avanzo por los caminos que son conformes a la naturaleza hasta, tras caer, tomar un descanso; expiro en el aire de donde respiro cada día y caigo en la tierra de donde mi padre aportó su pequeña semilla, mi madre su pequeña cantidad de sangre[279], la nodriza su pequeña cantidad de leche, de donde me nutro y riego cada día durante tantos años, aquello que me lleva como caminante y que malgasto para mi propio perjuicio en tantas cosas.

For the whole earth is a point, and how small a nook in it is this thy dwelling, and how few are there in it, and what kind of people are they who will praise thee. This then remains: Remember to retire into this little territory of thy own, and above all do not distract or strain thyself, but be free, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal.