Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Quotes
483 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
Acquire the contemplative way of seeing how all things change into one another, and constantly attend to it, and exercise thyself about this part [of philosophy]. For nothing is so much adapted to produce magnanimity.... But as to what any man shall say or think about him, or do against him, he never even thinks of it, being himself contented with these two things: with acting justly in what he now does, and being satisfied with what is now assigned to him; and he lays aside all distracting and busy pursuits, and desires nothing else than to accomplish the straight course through the law, and by accomplishing the straight course to follow God.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?... It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Find time still to be learning somewhat good, and give up being desultory.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
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 allowed thee.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more sutiable?
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Within ten days thou wilt seem a god to those to whom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou wilt return to thy principles and the worship of reason.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of this.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That's all you need to know.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Even while a thing is in the act of coming into existence, some part of it has already ceased to be.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic-what defines a human being-is to work with others.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
It doesn't hurt me unless I interpret its happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Does what's happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforward ness, and all other qualities that allow a person's nature to fulfill itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Life is short. That's all there is to say. Get what you can from the present - thoughtfully, justly.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Pray look upon the plants and birds, the ants, spiders, and bees, and you will see them all exerting their nature, and busy in their station. Pray, shall not a man act like a man?
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks. Why art thou disturbed? What is there new in this? What unsettles thee? Is it the form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? Look at it. But besides these there is nothing. Towards the gods, then, now become at last more simple and better. It is the same whether we examine these things for a hundred years or three.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
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.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.
Marcus Aurelius
Source
Report...
Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.
Marcus Aurelius
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
...
20
Quote of the day
Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.
Robert F. Kennedy
Marcus Aurelius
Creative Commons
Born:
April 26, 121
Died:
March 17, 180
(aged 58)
Bio:
Marcus Aurelius was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. Marcus Aurelius was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors.
Known for:
Meditations (180 AD)
Most used words:
man
life
nature
time
thyself
mind
art
live
soul
universe
power
change
thoughts
remember
common
Marcus Aurelius on Wikipedia
Marcus Aurelius works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Marcus Aurelius Quotes
Marcus Aurelius Short Quotes
Quotes about Marcus Aurelius
Roman Politician Quotes
Politician Quotes
2nd-century Politician Quotes
Related People
Hadrian
Spanish Politician
Epictetus
Greek Philosopher
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes