Marcus Aurelius

“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”

“Confine yourself to the present.”

“What we do now echoes in eternity.”

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

Meditations

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

“Receive without pride, let go without attachment.”

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”

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

“Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.”

“Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms.”

“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself.”

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.”

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

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

“All things fade and quickly turn to myth.”

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

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

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

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

“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”

“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”

“Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current.”

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”

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

“Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to live.”

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

“Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory than education without natural ability.”

“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness.”

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

“Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.”

“The best answer to anger is silence.”

“Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.”

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

“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”

“The obstacle is the way.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“Life is neither good nor evil, but only a place for good and evil.”

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

“The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.”

“Each day provides its own gifts.”

“The first step: Don't be anxious. Nature controls it all.”

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

“Choose not to be harmed and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed and you haven't been.”

“Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.”

“Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it.”

“Adapt yourself to the life you have been given; and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you.”

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

“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

“Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.”

“Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.”

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

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”

“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter.”

“Soon you will have forgotten all things; soon all things will have forgotten you.”

“Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore?”

“When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself, and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help.”

“Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not 'This is misfortune,' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'”

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together.”

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

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

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

“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.”

“Through the power of self-mastery, your mind can become a fortress.”

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

Meditations

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

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

Meditations

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

Meditations

“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”

Meditations