Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

Is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it?

Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility.

Let no act be done without a purpose

It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.

If you don't have a consistent goal in life, you can't live it in a consistent way.

Y recuerda que has de tratarles como a hombres, porque son tan humanos como tú y por tanto te resultan tan imprescindibles como la mandíbula inferior lo es para la superior.

As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.

Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised; and the rememberer and the remembered; and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not even here do all agree; no not anyone with himself; and the whole earth too is a point.

No lo hagas, si no conviene; no lo digas si no es verdad.

In the morning, when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm? But this is more pleasant. Do you exist then to take your pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion?

What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself. That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind.

Why all this guesswork? You can see what needs to be done. If you can see the road, follow it.

You may leave this life at any moment: have this possibility in your mind in all that you do or say or think. Now departure from the world of men is nothing to fear. If gods exist: because they would not involve you in any harm. If they do not exist, or if they have no care for humankind, then what is life to me in a world devoid of gods, or devoid of providence?

These things thou must always have in mind: What is the nature of the universe, and what is mine—in particular: This unto that what relation it hath: what kind of part, of what kind of universe it is: And that there is nobody that can hinder thee, but that thou mayest always both do and speak those things which are agreeable to that nature, whereof thou art a part.

For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.

Consider how quickly all things are dissolved and resolved:

To pass through this brief life as nature demands. To give it up without complaint. Like an olive that ripens and falls. Praising its mother, thanking the tree it grew on.

Spend not the remnant of thy days in thoughts and fancies concerning other men, when it is not in relation to some common good, when by it thou art hindered from some other better work.

Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see. The span we live is small—small

Do your best to convince them. But act on your own, if justice requires it. If met with force, then fall back on acceptance and peaceability. Use the setback to practice other virtues. Remember that our efforts are subject to circumstances; you weren't aiming to do the impossible. —Aiming to do what, then? To try. And you succeeded. What you set out to do is accomplished.

that to expect bad men not to do wrong is madness

To do harm is to do yourself harm. To do an injustice is to do yourself an injustice—it degrades you.

52. You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves.

To pursue the impossible is madness: but it is impossible for evil men not to do things of this sort.