Marcus Aurelius

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

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.

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

The best revenge is to be unlike the one who performed the injustice.

Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.

The spiritual meaning of love is measured by what it can do. Love is meant to heal. Love is meant to renew. Love is meant to bring us closer to God.

All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike. All is ephemeral "both memory and the object of memory. The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.

Anger cannot be dishonest.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

Observe and contemplate on the hidden things of life how a mans seed is but the beginning it takes others to bring it to fruition. Think how food undergoes such changes to produce health and strength. See the power of these hidden things which like the wind cannot been seen but its effects can be.

The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

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.

Be like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly; but it stands fast and around it the seething of the waters sink to rest.

But if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.

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

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

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

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

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

Accept everything which happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads to this, the health of the universe.

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

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

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.

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

A man makes no noise over a good deed but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.

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

The sinner sins against himself; the wrongdoer wrongs himself, becoming the worse by his own action.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

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.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

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

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

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

Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.

If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Can anything that is useful be accomplished without change?

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.

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 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

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

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.

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.

Submit to the fate of your own free will.

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

Gluttony and drunkenness have two evils attendant on them they make the carcass smart as well as the pocket.

How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.

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

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

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

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

All is ephemeral fame and the famous as well.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

When you are offended at anyones fault turn to yourself and study your own failings. By attending to them you will forget your anger and learn to live wisely.

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.

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."

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

A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.

That which is not good for the bee hive cannot be good for the bees.

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

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

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

Confine yourself to the present.

A man's true delight is to do the things he was made for.

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

All things fade into the storied past, and in a little while are shrouded in oblivion.

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.

Remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives nor lives any other than this which he now loses.

Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

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.

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

That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

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

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one's back is counterproductive.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

He who lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the universe.

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

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts therefore guard accordingly and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Remember that all is opinion.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.

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

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it youll have more time and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment Is this necessary

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

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

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.

But that which is useful is the better.

Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to.

External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle