Marcus Aurelius Quotes

In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business.

You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.

He who does not know what the world is, does not know where he is. And he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is. But he who has failed in any one of these things could not even say for what purpose he exists himself. What then dost thou think of him who [avoids or] seeks the praise of those who applaud, of men who know not either where they are or who they are?

Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it.

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

To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the rage of the sea falls still around it.

What happens to each of us is ordered. It furthers our destiny.

Keep this thought handy when you feel a bit of rage coming on – it isn't manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real person doesn't give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance – unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; “I am rising to a man’s work.”

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...

Why should you feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice.

I can control my thoughts as necessary; then how can I be troubled? (Hays translation)

Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.

People try to get away from it all—to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within.

Be satisfied with even the smallest progress.