Marcus Aurelius Quotes

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

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”

“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”

“The universe is transformation; life is opinion.”

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

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

“A man should be upright, not be kept upright.”

“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being.”

“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.”

“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.”

“If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth.”

“How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks.”

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinions of others.”

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

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

“The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrongdoer.”

“That which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road.”

“Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”

“Here is the rule to remember in the future, when anything tempts you to be bitter: not, "This is a misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."

“Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.”

“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”

“Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish. If anything is within the powers of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.”

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”

“Confine yourself to the present.”

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