Marcus Aurelius Life Quotations

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.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

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

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Life is not merely being alive, but being well

Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body yet endures

Knowledge the clue to life can give: Then wherefore hesitate to live

Surrender your life serenely, as serenely as the One who takes it from you

Remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses

Remember this, - that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life

The present joys of life we doubly taste by looking back with pleasure on the past

Your life is an expression of all your thoughts.

Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.

Everyman's life lies within the present, for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain

To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice

The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.

Your life is what your thoughts make it.

No man is quick enough to enjoy life

Execute every act of life as though it were thy last

Good men make life a twofold span to last: Twice does he live who can enjoy his past

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

A man's life is what his thoughts make of it.

Life is a campaign, a brief staying in a strange region.

Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore?

Always bear this in mind, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.

Each day provides its own gifts.

Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.

Take it that you have died today, and your life's story is ended; and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.

If you separate from . . . everything you have done in the past, everything that disturbs you about the future . . . and apply yourself to living the life that you are living-that is to say, the present-you can live all the time that remains to you until your death in calm, benevolence, and serenity.

Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before his moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus....

If you do the task before you always adhering to strict reason with zeal and energy and yet with humanity, disregarding all lesser ends and keeping the divinity within you pure and upright, as though you were even now faced with its recall - if you hold steadily to this, staying for nothing and shrinking from nothing, only seeking in each passing action a conformity with nature and in each word and utterance a fearless truthfulness, then the good life shall be yours. And from this course no man has the power to hold you back.

A person's life is dyed with the color of his imagination.

All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.

The universe is in change, life is an opinion.

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.

Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.

All that is not eternal is eternally out of date. C. S. LEWIS, The Four Loves Life is short. Eternity is long. BENTLEY LITTLE, His Father's Son What we do now echoes in eternity.

Live your life as if you are ready to say goodbye to it at any moment, as if the time left for you were some pleasant surprise.

Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them.

Life is short. That's all there is to say. Get what you can from the present - thoughtfully, justly.

The only thing that isn't worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly, And be patience with those who don't.

A person's life is what their thoughts make it.

The universe is a single life comprising one substance and one soul.

Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.

One whose chief regard is for his own mind, and for the divinity within him and the service of its goodness, will strike no poses, utter no complaints, and crave neither for solitude nor yet for a crowd. Best of all, his life will be free from continual pursuing and avoiding.

Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible; life in a palace is possible; therefore even in a palace a right life is possible.

Every instant of time... is a pinprick of eternity.

Discard everything except these few truths: we can live only in the present moment, in this brief now; all the rest of our life is dead and buried or shrouded in uncertainty. Short is the life we lead, and small our patch of earth.

Remember that even if you were to live for three thousand years, or thirty thousand, you could not lose any other life than the one you have, and there will be no other life after it. So the longest and the shortest lives are the same. The present moment is shared by all living creatures, but the time that is past is gone forever. No one can lose the past or the future, for if they don't belong to you, how can they be taken from you?

Consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man's life is only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead.

Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful - and hence neither good nor bad.

Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.

Life is a stranger's sojourn, a night at an inn.

You have to assemble your life yourself - action by action.

Can anything that is useful be accomplished without change?

The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.

What we do now echoes in eternity.

Our life is what our thoughts make it. Do every act of your life as if it were your last. In a word, your life is short. You must make the most of the present with the aid of reason and justice. Since it is possible that you may be quitting life this very moment, govern every act and thought accordingly.

Just consider, my friend, whether a pure spirit and virtue are anything other than saving your life and being saved. Perhaps we need to discard the idea of longevity and cease loving this life, instead committing these things to God and, believing that no one ever escapes destiny, to consider, with that in mind, how we may live the best possible life in the time that remains.

The world is nothing but change, our life is only perception.

He that lives alone lives in danger; society avoids many dangers.

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.

Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.

Let thine occupations be few, saith the sage, if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life.

Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.

Spend your brief moment according to nature's law, and serenely greet the journey's end as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing the branch that bare it, and giving thanks to the tree that gave it life.