Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, 121-180
74 quotes.
Quotes by Marcus Aurelius
- A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
- A man should be upright, not be kept upright.
- A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.
- All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.
- Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
- Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.
- Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.
- Consider how much more often you suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.
- Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
- Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick out some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly you would wish for them, were they not in your possession.
- Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?
- Don’t be overheard complaining… Not even to yourself.
- Don’t give the small things more time than they deserve.
- Every man’s life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.
- How much more damage anger and grief do than the things that cause them.
- How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
- 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, by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and ignorance.
- If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.
- If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true, speak it not.
- If something is possible for Man, tell yourself that it is within your reach.
- If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.
- If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
- If you are troubled by external circumstances, it is not the circumstances that trouble you, but your own perception of them.
- If you don’t have a consistent goal in life, you can’t live it in a consistent way.
- Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without change?
- It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you – inside or out.
- It is a great folly not to part with your own faults, which is possible, but to try instead to escape from other people's faults, which is impossible.
- It is the privilege of human nature above brutes, to love those that disoblige us.
- Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
- Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.
- Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
- Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
- Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
- Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
- 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.
- No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.
- No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.
- Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
- Nothing happens to anyone that he can't endure.
- Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.