Explore Quotes by Marcus Aurelius

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it.... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

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.

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

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.

Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

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.'

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.

What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.