Marcus Aurelius - Meditations (180 AD)

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Men are born for each other's sake, so either teach people or endure them

Marcus Aurelius
No one can keep you from living as your nature requires. Nothings can happen to you that is not required by Nature.

Marcus Aurelius
Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?

Marcus Aurelius
It is possible to depart from life at this moment. Have this thought in mind whenever you act, speak, or think.

Marcus Aurelius
Find joy in simplicity, self-respect, and indifference to what lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race. Follow the divine.

Marcus Aurelius
Do not expect Plato's ideal republic; be satisfied with even the smallest step forward, and consider this no small achievement.

Marcus Aurelius
I bless the gods for not letting my education in rhetoric, poetry, and other literary studies come easily to me, and thereby sparing me from an absorbing interest in these subjects.

Marcus Aurelius
Not even the vicissitudes of fortune are contrary to nature or to the providential ordering of the universe. It all flows from the gods, who determine what is needed for the welfare of the whole universe, of which you are a part.

Marcus Aurelius
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.

Marcus Aurelius
The gods have provided me with clear and compelling signs of what it means to live in conformity to nature. They did their part. So far as their gifts, aid, and inspiration are concerned, nothing prevented me from following the path prescribed by nature. If from time to time I have strayed from this path, the fault lies with me and with my failure to heed the gods' signs, or rather, their explicit instructions.

Marcus Aurelius
If it's time for you to go, leave willingly - as you would to accomplish anything that can be done with grace and honor.

Marcus Aurelius
Cultivate these, then, for they are wholly within your power: sincerity and dignity; industriousness; and sobriety. Avoid grumbling, be frugal, considerate, and frank; be temperate in manner and speech; carry yourself with authority.

Marcus Aurelius
Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to.

Marcus Aurelius
Reflect often upon the rapidity with which all existing things, or things coming into existence, sweep past us and are carried away.

Marcus Aurelius
A good man does not spy around for the black spots in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.

Marcus Aurelius
Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it--turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself, so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.

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

Marcus Aurelius
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.

Marcus Aurelius
In death, Alexander of Macedon's end differed no whit from his stable-boy's. Either both were received into the same generative principle of the universe, or both alike were dispersed into atoms.

Marcus Aurelius
Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.

Marcus Aurelius
It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.

Marcus Aurelius
Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.

Marcus Aurelius
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?

Marcus Aurelius
A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all - that is myself.

Marcus Aurelius
In reading and writing, you cannot lay down rules until you have learnt to obey them. Much more so in life.

Marcus Aurelius
Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about.

Marcus Aurelius
External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.

Marcus Aurelius
It's normal to feel pain in your hands and feet, if you're using your feet as feet and your hands as hands. And for a human being to feel stress is normal - if he's living a normal life. And if it's normal, how can it be bad?

Marcus Aurelius
Look deep into the hearts of men, and see what delights and disgusts the wise.

Marcus Aurelius
Persuade me or prove to me that I am mistaken in thought or deed, and I will gladly change - for it is the truth I seek, and the truth never harmed anyone. Harm comes from persisting in error and clinging to ignorance.

Marcus Aurelius