Why should I know Marcus Aurelius?

“A brief existence is common to all things, and yet you avoid and pursue all things as if they would be eternal.”

“A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.”

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

“A vine cannot behave olively, nor an olive tree vinely – it is impossible, inconceivable. No more can a human being wholly efface his native disposition.”

“Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.”

“Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.”

“Anger cannot be dishonest.”

“As an antidote to battle unkindness we were given kindness.”

“Be content to seem what you really are.”

“Confine yourself to the present.”

“Do as Socrates did, never replying to the question of where he was from with, ‘I am Athenian,’ or ‘I am from Corinth,’ but always, ‘I am a citizen of the world.’”

“Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.”

“Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives it.”

“Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable… then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well. Just remember: you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so. In your interest, or in your nature.”

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

“Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.”

“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”

“How long will you wait before you demand the best of yourself, and trust reason to determine what is best?”

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

“If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it.”

“If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.”

“In a little while you will have forgotten everything; in a little while everything will have forgotten you.”

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

“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”

“Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.”

“Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.”

“Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their minds.”

“Refer your action to no other end than the common good.”

“So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?”

“Stop wishing for something else to happen, for a different fate. That is to live a false life.”

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

“The best answer to anger is silence.”

“The first thing a pretender to philosophy must do is get rid of their presuppositions; a person is not going to undertake to learn anything that they think they already know.”

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

“The man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet, will in every place he visits find something to prevent him from relaxing.”

“The mind in itself has no needs, except for those it creates itself. Is undisturbed, except for its own disturbances. Knows no obstructions, except those from within.”

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”

“The true man is revealed in difficult times. So when trouble comes, think of yourself as a wrestler whom God, like a trainer, has paired with a tough young buck. For what purpose? To turn you into Olympic-class material. But this is going to take some sweat to accomplish.”

“To have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more will you see?”

“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.”

“Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn’t from outside me but in my own assumptions.”

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

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

“When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.”

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”

“Whenever externals are more important to you than your own integrity, then be prepared to serve them the remainder of your life.”

“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”

“Why are we still lazy, indifferent and dull? Why do we look for excuses to avoid training and exercising our powers of reason?”

“Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?”

“You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you.”

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Your life is an expression of all your thoughts.”

“Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.”