Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.

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 soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together.

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

Look back over the past, and consider how many changes have happened, and you may foresee what will come.

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

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

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

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

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

Be content to seem what you really are.

Begin each day by telling yourself: today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty.

Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me.

Concentrate every minute on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness.

Choose not to be harmed and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed and you haven't been.

The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like that.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it.

How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does.

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: what fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?

Most of what we say and do is not essential. Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary?

Receive without pride, let go without attachment.

To live a good life: we have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.

The present moment always will have been. What you do right now matters — not because it will last, but because it happened.

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

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

When you wake up in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive.

You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.

The path of life shall be for you, like for everyone else, sometimes hard and rough. Adopt the right disposition.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Confine yourself to the present.

Real intelligence is not having to manufacture your importance by demeaning others.

Don't be a slave to your own desires. Be a master.

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

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.