Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.
Quotes
“Praise adds nothing to beauty – makes it neither better nor worse.”
“The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it.”
“Men exist for the sake of one another.”
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
“No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.”
“Do not be wise in words – be wise in deeds.”
“You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.”
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
“Each day provides its own gifts.”
“For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.”
“Stick to what’s in front of you – idea, action, utterance.”
“We are born for cooperation.”
“The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.”
“The body of an actor can be either his best friend or his worst enemy.”
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”
“Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.”
“The world is a living being – one nature, one soul. Keep that in mind.”
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
“Infinity is a fathomless gulf, into which all things vanish.”
“What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.”
“Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.”
“He who eats my bread, does my will.”
“Life is a campaign, a brief staying in a strange region.”
“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”
“Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.”
“Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.”
“Change your attitude to the things that bother you and you will be aware of them.”
“Nature insists on whatever benefits the whole.”
“Leave other people’s mistakes where they lie.”
“Love the people with whom fate brings you together.”
“It is the duty of men to love even those who injure them.”
“It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities .”
“A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all – that is myself.”
“Death hangs over thee, While thou still live, while thou may, do good.”
“The most complete revenge is not to imitate the aggressor.”
“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.”
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.”
“He that lives alone lives in danger; society avoids many dangers.”
“Do every act of your life as if it were your last.”
“The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.”
“Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.”
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
“Body. Soul. Mind. Sensations: the body. Desires: the soul. Reasoning: the mind.”
“What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.”
“Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.”
“Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.”
“Life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.”
“You have to assemble your life yourself – action by action.”
“Limit time to the present. Meditate upon your last hour.”
“Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate.”
“Snow endures but for a season, and joy comes with the morning.”
“Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.”
“The act of dying is one of the acts of life.”
“Be content to seem what you really are.”
“Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?”
“Let no act be done without purpose.”
“The one thing worth living for is to keep one’s soul pure.”
“A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.”
“That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.”
“Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.”
“Look to nothing, not even for a moment except to reason.”
“Give full attention and devotion to each act.”
“Receive the gifts of fortune without pride, and part with them without reluctance.”
“While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”
“It is a sin to persue pleasure as a good and to avoid pain as a evil.”
“Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy.”
“Welcome every experience the looms of fate may weave for you…”
“Remind oneself continually of one of those who practiced virtue in days gone by.”
“A lucky chance is constant in nothing but inconstancy.”
“To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.”
“A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.”
“Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.”
“Poverty is the mother of crime.”
“A man should be upright, not be kept upright.”
“The man who has a house everywhere has a home nowhere.”
“Because other people are fools, must you be so too?”
“For any particular thing, ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature?”
“To breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
“Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.”
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
“I, who have never willfully pained another, have no business to pain myself.”
“My true Self is free. I cannot be contained.”
“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”
“The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.”
“The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.”
“Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.”
“Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.”
“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”
“A good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine.”
“To expect an impossibility is madness.”
“The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything!”
“All things fade and quickly turn to myth.”
“How soon will time cover all things.”
“All is Ephemeral, fame and the famous as well.”
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“Where a man can live, he can also live well.”
“And what after all is everlasting fame? Altogether vanity.”
“What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.”
“The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer.”
“A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission.”
“Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
“Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.”
“That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.”
“Everything is mere opinion.”
“Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.”
“The constant recollection of death is the test of human conduct.”
“Both happiness and unhappiness depend on perception.”
“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”
“You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.”
“Nothing that goes on in anyone else’s mind can harm you.”
“Do not be ashamed of help.”
“Receive without conceit, release without struggle.”
“It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it.”
“The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.”
“Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind.”
“All that is from the gods is full of Providence.”
“Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their mind.”
“Without a purpose, nothing should be done.”
“The universe is in change, life is an opinion.”
“Submit to the fate of your own free will.”
“Vex not thy spirit at the course of things, they heed not thy vexations.”
“Man is born for deeds of kindness.”
“A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.”
“To live happily is an inward power of the soul.”
“All is as thinking makes it so.”
“Confine yourself to the present.”
“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
“Your task is to stand straight; not to be held straight.”
“Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.”
“Anger cannot be dishonest.”
“He does not write at all whose poems no man reads.”
“Look deeply. Don’t miss the inherent quality and value of everything.”
“To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.”
“Do not act as if you had a thousand years to live.”
“The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.”
“The intelligence of the universe is social.”
“Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure.”
“Let every action aim solely at the common good.”
“Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?”
“Nothing is evil which is according to nature.”
“You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.”
“Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives us.”
“Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.”
“We are the other of the other.”
“No man is happy who does not think himself so.”
“It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.”
“What we do now echoes in eternity.”
“If it is not right do not do it. If it is not true do not say it.”
“Dig within. There lies the wellspring of good.”
“Find time still to be learning somewhat good, and give up being desultory.”
“For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason.”