Marcus Aurelius Quotes

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 passing minute is every man's equal possession but what has once gone by is not ours.
Marcus Aurelius
The sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment.
Marcus Aurelius
It is not the weight of the future or the past that is pressing upon you but ever that of the present alone. Even this burden too can be lessened if you confine it strictly to its own limits.
Marcus Aurelius
Everyman's life lies within the present for the past is spent and done with and the future is uncertain.
Marcus Aurelius
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it if you have to with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
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
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
What pulls the strings is the force hidden within there lies ... the real man.
Marcus Aurelius
This is the chief thing: be not perturbed for all things are according to the nature of the universal.
Marcus Aurelius
Let them know a real man who lives as he was meant to live.
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
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts ... take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
Marcus Aurelius
A man's life is what his thoughts make it.
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
To live each day as though one's last never flustered never apathetic never attitudinizing-here is perfection of character.
Marcus Aurelius
This is the chief thing: be not perturbed for all things are according to the nature of the universal.
Marcus Aurelius
Let them know a real man who lives as he was meant to live.
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
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts ... take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
Marcus Aurelius
A man's life is what his thoughts make it.
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
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
To live each day as though one's last never flustered never apathetic never attitudinizing-here is perfection of character.
Marcus Aurelius
Snow endures but for a season and joy comes with the morning.
Marcus Aurelius
Life is a stranger's sojourn a night at an inn.
Marcus Aurelius
The art of living is more like that of wrestling than of dancing. The main thing is to stand firm and be ready for an unforeseen attack.
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
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
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius
A man's happiness: to do the things proper to man.
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
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Marcus Aurelius
If thou workest at that which is before thee ... expecting nothing fearing nothing but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this.
Marcus Aurelius
If thou workest at that which is before thee following right reason seriously vigorously calmly without allowing anything else to distract thee but keeping thy divine part pure as if thou shouldst be bound to give it back immediately if thou holdest to this expecting nothing fearing nothing but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this.
Marcus Aurelius
To them that ask where have you seen the Gods or how do you know for certain there are Gods that you are so devout in their worship? I answer: Neither have I ever seen my own soul and yet I respect and honor it.
Marcus Aurelius
The one thing worth living for is to keep one's soul pure.
Marcus Aurelius
A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.
Marcus Aurelius
The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.
Marcus Aurelius
Without a purpose nothing should be done.
Marcus Aurelius
Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.
Marcus Aurelius
Take full account of the excellencies which you possess and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them if you had them not.
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
If you are distressed by anything external the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius
Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.
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
There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.
Marcus Aurelius
Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure.
Marcus Aurelius
A man should remove not only unnecessary acts but also unnecessary thoughts for then superfluous activity will not follow.
Marcus Aurelius
There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay and this is common to the entire universe.
Marcus Aurelius
Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?
Marcus Aurelius
It is not death that a man should fear he should fear never beginning to live.
Marcus Aurelius
Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.
Marcus Aurelius
Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate.
Marcus Aurelius
Here is a rule to remember when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is a misfortune " but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."
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
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