Marcus Aurelius quotes
28 passages from Meditations
Roman emperor from 161 to 180 CE, and the last of the emperors remembered as the "Five Good Emperors". The notebooks we call Meditations were written in Greek, largely on campaign, and were never meant to be read by anyone else — which is why they read as instruction to himself rather than argument aimed at a reader.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“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.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“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.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“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.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Understand that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“What is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bee.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Confine yourself to the present.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life, but instead ask yourself, “What is there in this present moment that is intolerable?””
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Does anything pass into oblivion? No, not really. It is still right here with us.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not the thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like the wrongdoer.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“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.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Whatever happens to you has been ready for you since all eternity.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations