Marcus Aurelius Quotes

“Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.”

“Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”

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

“Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.”

“Near is thy forgetfulness of all things; and near the forgetfulness of thee by all.”

“Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.”

“Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.”

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

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

“Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.”

“Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.”

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

“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”

“To live happily is an inward power of the soul.”

“The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does.”

“Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.”

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.”

“To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.”

“A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.”

“Where a man can live, he can also live well.”

“Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.”

“We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.”

“That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees.”

“Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.”