Marcus Aurelius Quotations | Page 9

The universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything which is within her which appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter, and her own art.

The mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable . He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man: but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy.

It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.

The nature of the All moved to make the universe.

Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear; for where we are able to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.

Do not act as if you had a thousand years to live.

Yet living and dying, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, and so forth are equally the lot of good men and bad. Things like these neither elevate nor degrade; and therefore they are no more good than they are evil.

The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy æther knoweth what love is." The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.

He who fears death either fears to lose all sensation or fears new sensations. In reality, you will either feel nothing at all, and therefore nothing evil, or else, if you can feel any sensations, you will be a new creature, and so will not have ceased to have life.

If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.

The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.

It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

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

Because a thing is difficult for you, do not therefore suppose it to be beyond mortal power. On the contrary, if anything is possible and proper for man to do, assume that it must fall within your own capacity.

Glory arrives too late when it comes only to one's ashes

Leave other people's mistakes where they lie.

Light may earth's crumbling sand be laid on thee, that dogs may dig thy bones up easily

The man who has a house everywhere has a home nowhere

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

As the same fire assumes different shapes When it consumes objects differing in shape, So does the one Self take the shape Of every creature in whom he is present.

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.

Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.

You are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.

How barbarous, to deny men the privilege of pursuing what they imagine to be their proper concerns and interests! Yet, in a sense, this is just what you are doing when you allow your indignation to rise at their wrongdoing; for after all, they are only following their own apparent concerns and interests. You say they are mistaken? Why then, tell them so, and explain it to them, instead of being indignant.

Men exist for each other. Then either improve them, or put up with them.

All is as thinking makes it so

Give full attention and devotion to each act.

This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate.

Everything is ephemeral, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.

Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate.

Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence? But Gods there are, undoubtedly, and they regard human affairs; and have put it wholly in our power, that we should not fall into what is truly evil.

Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.

You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves.

No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.

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

Don't be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you've been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?

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

Now departure from the world of men is nothing to fear, if gods exist: because they would not involve you in any harm. If they do not exist, or if they have no care for humankind, then what is life to me in a world devoid of gods, or devoid of providence? But they do exist, and they do care for humankind: and they have put it absolutely in man's power to avoid falling into the true kinds of harm.

There is a limit circumscribed to your time – if you do not use it to clear away your clouds, it will be gone, and you will be gone, and the opportunity will not return

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.

He does not write at all whose poems no man reads

As for literature, thefts cannot harm it, while the lapse of ages augments its value

Are you distracted by outward cares? Then allow yourself a space of quiet wherein you can add to your knowledge of the Good and learn to curb your restlessness. Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself.

The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it - either gratefully better than or bitterly worse than something else that you alone choose.

I am an old man and have had many worries, but most have never come to pass.

What does not benefit the hive is no benefit to the bee.

Things themselves cannot touch the soul, not in the least degree, nor have they admission to the soul nor can they turn or move the soul: it turns and moves itself alone and whatever judgment it may think proper to make, such it makes by remaking for itself the things that present themselves to it

Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are composed harmoniously, and together - they compose the world.

Give your heart to the trade you have learnt, and draw refreshment from it. Let the rest of your days be spent as one who has whole-heartedly committed his all to the gods and is thenceforth no man's master or slave.

From Apollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason.

Nature in no case cometh short of art, for the arts are copiers of natural forms.

Remember: Matter: how tiny your share of it. Time: how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate: how small a role you play in it.

Stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.

To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief

Cinna wishes to seem poor, and is poor

You exist but as a part inherent in a greater whole. Do not live as though you had a thousand years before you. The common due impends; while you live, and while you may, be good.

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.

At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that "I am rising for the work of man."

Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe.

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.

I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.

Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.

An angry look on the face is wholly against nature. If it be assumed frequently, beauty begins to perish, and in the end is quenched beyond rekindling.

Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.

It is right that man should love those who have offended him. He will do so when he remembers that all men are his relations, and that it is through ignorance and involuntarily that they sin,--and then we all die so soon.

When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, endeavor to rouse your faculties, and act up to your kind, and consider that you have to do the business of a man; and that action is both beneficial and the end of your being.

Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.

Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance - now, at this very moment - of all external events. That's all you need.