Marcus Aurelius Quotes - Page 2

Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.

All things fade and quickly turn to myth.

What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.

From the philosopher Catulus, never to be dismissive of a friend's accusation, even if it seems unreasonable, but to make every effort to restore the relationship to its normal condition.

All things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare, and a visit to a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion.

Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.

striid andWthdraw into yourself. Our master-reason asks no more than to act justly, and thereby to achieve calm.

The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.

You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious. You need to get used to winnowing your thoughts, so that if someone says, "What are your thinking about?" you can respond at once (and truthfully) that you are thinking this or thinking that.

You should always be ready to apply these two rules of action, the first, to do nothing other than what the kingly and law-making art ordains for the benefits of humankind, and, the second, to be prepared to change your mind if someone is at hand to put you right and guide you away from some groundless opinion.

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

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.

Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.

That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not".

And so accept everything that happens, even if it is disagreeable, because it leads to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity of Zeus