Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.

~ Marcus Aurelius

If it is not right do not do it, if it is not true do not say it.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Salvation: to see each thing for what it is— its nature and its purpose.To do only what is right, say only what is true, without holding back.What else could it be but to live life fully— to pay out goodnesslike the rings of a chain, without the slightest gap.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Death smiles at us all, all we can do is smile back.

~ Marcus Aurelius

And in the case of superior things like stars, we discover a kind of unity in separation. The higher we rise on the scale of being, the easier it is to discern a connection even among things separated by vast distances.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Do not be ashamed of help.

~ Marcus Aurelius

There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Swiftly the remembrance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity.

~ Marcus Aurelius

There is nothing more shameful than perfidious friendship.

~ Marcus Aurelius

A key point to bear in mind: The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

~ Marcus Aurelius

…praise does not make anything better or worse.

~ Marcus Aurelius

All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike. All is ephemeral—both memory and the object of memory. The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.

~ Marcus Aurelius

You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.

~ Marcus Aurelius

It is not death that a man should fear he should fear never beginning to live.

~ Marcus Aurelius

There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Time is like a river of fleeting events and its current is strong as soon as something comes into sight it is swept past us and something else takes its place and that too will be swept away.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

~ Marcus Aurelius

I often marvel how it is that though each man loves himself beyond all else he should yet value his own opinion of himself less than that of others.

~ Marcus Aurelius

To live each day as though one's last never flustered never apathetic never attitudinizing-here is perfection of character.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Time is a sort of river of passing events and strong is its current no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place and this too will be swept away.

~ Marcus Aurelius

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Vex not thy spirit at the course of things they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.

~ Marcus Aurelius

What pulls the strings is the force hidden within there lies ... the real man.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Look well into thyself there is a source which will always spring up if thou wilt always search there.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Man must be arched and buttressed from within else the temple wavers to dust.

~ Marcus Aurelius

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks but only at what he does himself to make it just and holy.

~ Marcus Aurelius

The sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Each day provides its own gifts.

~ Marcus Aurelius

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.

~ Marcus Aurelius

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

~ Marcus Aurelius