Marcus Aurelius Quotes

The best revenge is to not be like that.

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

Everything transitory--the knower and the known.

Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.

Respect the faculty that forms thy judgments.

So other people hurt me? That's their problem. Their character and actions are not mine.

No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No imprecision in your thoughts. (Hays translation)

Disturbance comes only from within—from our own perceptions. (Hays translation)

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.

Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it's unendurable . . . then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well. (Hays translation)

In the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that the pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bear in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination...

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

It is not given to a cylinder to move everywhere by its own motion, nor yet to water nor to fire nor to anything else which is governed by nature or an irrational soul, for the things which check them and stand in the way are many. But intelligence and reason are able to go through everything that opposes them, and in such manner as they are formed by nature and as they choose. Place before thy eyes this facility with which the reason will be carried through all things, as fire upwards, as a stone downwards, as a cylinder down an inclined surface, and seek for nothing further. For all other obstacles either affect the body only, which is a dead thing; or, except for opinion and the yielding of reason itself, they do not crush nor do any harm of any kind; for if they did, he who felt it would immediately become bad.

Take heed not to be transformed into a Caesar, not to be dipped in the purple dye, for it does happen. Keep yourself therefore, simple, good, pure, grave, unaffected, the friend of justice, religious, kind, affectionate, strong for your proper work. Wrestle to be the man philosophy wished to make you. Reverence the gods, save men. Life is brief; there is but one harvest of earthly existence, a holy disposition and neighborly acts.

External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now. (Hays translation)