Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

No longer wander at hazard; for neither will you read your own memoirs, nor the acts of the ancient Romans and Hellenes, and the selections from books you were reserving for your old age. Hasten then to your appointed end and, throwing away idle hopes, come to your own aid, if you care at all for yourself, while it is in your power.

Thou canst begin a new life! See but things afresh as thou usedst to see them; for in this consists the new life.

The salvation of life lies in seeing each object in its essence and its entirety, discerning both the material and the causal: in applying one's whole soul to doing right and speaking the truth. There remains only the enjoyment of living a linked succession of good deeds, with not the slightest gap between them. p121

Be a boxer, not a gladiator, in the way you act on your principles. The gladiator takes up his sword only to put it down again, but the boxer is never without his fist and only has to clinch it.

Whatsoever any man either doth or saith, thou must be good; not for any man's sake, but for thine own nature's sake; as if either gold, or the emerald, or purple, should ever be saying to themselves, Whatsoever any man either doth or saith, I must still be an emerald, and I must keep my colour.

Is any many so foolish as to fear change, to which all things that once were not owe their being?

Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before this moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus, and live it as nature directs. p66

Both he that praiseth, and he that is praised; he that remembers, and he that is remembered, will soon be dust and ashes.

Doth then any of them forsake their former false opinions that I should think they profit? For without a change of opinions, alas! what is all that ostentation, but mere wretchedness of slavish minds, that groan privately, and yet would make a show of obedience to reason, and truth?

Time was that wherever forsaken I was a man well-portioned; but that man well-portioned is he that has given himself a good portion; and good portions are good phases of the soul, good impulses, good actions.

everyone is worth just so much as those things are worth in which he is interested.

Of all existing things some are in our power, and others are not in our power.

Make it not any longer a matter of dispute or discourse, what are the signs and properties of a good man, but really and actually be such.

Make no difference in doing thy duty whether thou art shivering or warm, drowsy or sleep-satisfied, defamed or extolled, dying or anything else. For the act of dying too is one of the acts of life. So it is enough in this also to get the work in hand done well.

In conversation keep abreast of what is being said, and, in every effort, of what is being done. In the latter see from the first to what end it has reference, and in the former be careful to catch the meaning.

Men are born for the sake of each other. So either teach or tolerate. p82

This that I am, whatever it be, is mere flesh and a little breath and the ruling Reason.

God give me patience to reconcile with what I am not able to change. Give me strength to change what I can. And give me wisdom to distinguish one from another.

Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear. Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body still perseveres. Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity.

Everything's destiny is to change, to be transformed, to perish. So that new things can be born.

Everything in any way beautiful has its beauty of itself, inherent and self-sufficient: praise is no part of it.

You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.

You must build up your life action by action, and be content if each one achieves its goal as far as possible.

Through the universal Substance as through a rushing torrent all bodies pass on their way, united with the Whole in nature and activity, as our members are with one another.