Marcus Aurelius quotes - page 9

About fame... Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after. (Marcus Aurelius)
Suppose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural unity... yet here there is this beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut asunder, to come together again. ...he has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be separated at all from the universal ...he has allowed him to be returned and to be united and to resume his place as a part. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them. That's all you need to know. (Hays translation) View quote
Marcus Aurelius
It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance, and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a fig, and as to time the turning of a gimlet . View quote
Marcus Aurelius
How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Nature which governs the whole will soon change all things which you see, and out of their substance will make other things and again other things... in order that the world may be ever new. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
A man standing by a spring of clear, sweet water and cursing it. While the fresh water keeps on bubbling up. He can shovel mud into it, or dung, and the stream will carry it away, wash itself clean, remain unstained. (Hays translation) (Marcus Aurelius)
Things have no hold on the soul. They have no access to it, cannot move or direct it. It is moved and directed by itself alone. It takes the things before it and interprets them as it sees fit. (Hays translation) View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Leave the wrong done by another where the wrong arose. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
"Leaves, some the wind scatters on the ground-So is the race of man." Leaves, also, are thy children; and leaves, too, are they who cry out so if they are worthy of credit, or bestow their praise, or on the contrary curse, or secretly blame and sneer; and leaves, in like manner, are those who shall receive and transmit a man's fame to after-times. For all such things as these "are produced in the season of spring," as the poet says; then the wind casts them down; then the forest produces other leaves in their places. But a brief existence is common to all things, and yet thou avoidest and pursuest all things as if they would be eternal. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No imprecision in your thoughts. (Hays translation) (Marcus Aurelius)
The universal intelligence puts itself in motion for every separate effect... or it puts itself in motion once, and everything else comes by way of a sequence in a manner; or individual elements are the origin of all things. In a word, if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not thou be governed by it. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Let it not be in any man's power to say truly of thee that thou art not simple or that thou art not good; but let him be a liar whoever shall think anything of this kind about thee; and this is altogether in thy power. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human--however imperfectly--and fully embrace the pursuit that you've embarked on. (Hays translation) View quote
Marcus Aurelius
This is a fine saying of Plato: That he who is discoursing about men should look also at earthly things as if he viewed them from some higher place; should look at them... a mixture of all things and an orderly combination of contraries. View quote
Marcus Aurelius