Marcus Aurelius Quotes

619 quotes in 4760 categories

• It is a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to regulate and compose itself as the mind commands, and for the mind…
• Every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution; and all other things have been constituted for the sake of the superior,…
• On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I…
• There are three relations [between thee and other things]: the one to the body which surrounds thee; the second to the divine cause from which…
• Suppose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural unity... yet here there is this beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to…
• All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
• Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what…
• Why dost thou not pray... to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any…
• Continuously thou wilt look at human things as smoke and nothing at all; especially if thou reflectest at the same time, that what has once…
• What matter and opportunity [for thy activity] art thou avoiding? For what else are all these things, except exercises for the reason, when it has…
• Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never…
• And finally remember that nothing harms him who is really a citizen, which does not harm the state; nor yet does anything harm the state…
• Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.
• In the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that the pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bear in…
• Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things which come from the external cause; and let there be justice in the things…
• All those [events in history] were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.
• From Plato: the man who has an elevated mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, dost thou suppose it possible…
• Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is…
• No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with…
• Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance, and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a…

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