Marcus Aurelius Quotes (150 Quotes)


    Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, 'I have been harmed.' Take away the complaint, 'I have been harmed,' and the harm is taken away.

    Consider that thou dost not even understand whether men are doing wrong or not, for many things are done with a certain reference to circumstance. And, in short, a man must learn a great deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment on another man's acts.

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

    When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans

    The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.



    Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.


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

    Take full account of what excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.

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


    The present joys of life we doubly taste by looking back with pleasure on the past

    When the crowd of your admirers is shouting, Bravo Hear, hear it is not you, Pomponius, but your dinner that is eloquent

    As the same fire assumes different shapes When it consumes objects differing in shape, So does the one Self take the shape Of every creature in whom he is present.

    What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

    Glory arrives too late when it comes only to one's ashes

    Do you make a grievance of weighing so many pounds only instead of three hundred Then why fret about living so many years only, instead of more Since you are content with the measure of substance allowed you, be so also with the measure of time

    Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.


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

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

    When the blandishments of life are gone, the coward creeps to death - the brave lives on


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

    Zoilus, why do you delight in using a whole pound weight of gold for the setting of a stone, and thus burying your poor sardonyx Such rings are more suited to your legs the weight is too great for fingers

    Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

    Is any man afraid of change Why what can take place without change What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature.

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

    When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.

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

    If you want him to mourn, you had best leave him nothing

    Your face is black, your hair like flame, And one eye's damaged, one foot lame If, still, you're quite decent chap - Well 'tis a feather in your cap

    Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body yet endures

    As for literature, thefts cannot harm it, while the lapse of ages augments its value

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

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

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

    You wish to appear, Cotta, a pretty man and a great man at one and the same time but he who is a pretty man, Cotta, is a very small man

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

    Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

    The guest at the lower end of the middle couch, with three hairs on his bald head and his scalp streaked with pigment, who is digging in his big mouth with a toothpick, is a fraud, Aefulanus, He has no teeth.

    The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.

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

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

    Since you are so well matched, and so much alike - a very bad wife, and a very bad husband - I wonder that you do not agree.

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


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

    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 opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.


    More Marcus Aurelius Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Man - Life - Mind - Death & Dying - Nature - Time - Change - Soul - Wisdom & Knowledge - Faces - Place - Future - Opinions - Present - Anger - Praise - Truth - Success - Planning - View All Marcus Aurelius Quotations

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