Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like [the wrong-doer].

Remember that to change your mind and to accept correction are free acts too. The action is yours, based on your own will, your own decision—and your own mind.

If any man can convince and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek truth, by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and ignorance.

Live as though today is your last day.

Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense

Now forget what they think of you. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Focus on that, and don't let anything distract you. You've wandered all over and finally realized that you never found what you were after: how to live. Not in syllogisms, not in money, or fame, or self-indulgence. Nowhere.

When thou hast assumed these names, good, modest, true, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnanimous, take care that thou dost not change these names; and if thou shouldst lose them, quickly return to them. And remember that the term Rational was intended to signify a discriminating attention to every several thing and freedom from negligence; and that Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things

He was taught to dress plainly and to live simply, to avoid all softness and luxury.

Some things are hurrying into existence, and others are hurrying out of it;

whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.

tranquillity is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.

A little wisp of soul carrying a corpse."—Epictetus.

Continually, and, if possible, in the case of every mental image, consider its nature, realize its emotional content, and judge it rationally.

Be like a headland: the Waves beat against it continuously, but it stands fast and around it the boiling water dies down.

Don't cling to possessions and other external things; cling only to the divine spark within you.

Constantly observe who those are whose approval you wish to have, and what ruling principles they possess. For then you will neither blame those who offend involuntarily, nor will you want their approval, if you look to the sources of their opinions and appetites.

Your ability to control your thoughts—treat it with respect. It's all that protects your mind from false perceptions—false to your nature, and that of all rational beings. It's what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submission to the divine.

Do, soul, do; abuse and contemn thyself; yet a while and the time for thee to respect thyself, will be at an end.

Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.

What am I doing with my soul? Interrogate yourself, to find out what inhabits your so-called mind and what kind of soul you have now. A child's soul, an adolescent's, a woman's? A tyrant's soul? The soul of a predator—or its prey?

You are a spirit, bearing the weight of a dead body, as Epictetus used to say.

But cast away the thirst after books, that thou mayest not die murmuring, but cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful to the gods.

What, then, makes for a good person? These principles: Be content in all circumstances, accepting whatever Fate brings you; preserve the spark of divinity within, not crowding it out with entertainments and distractions; follow the light of reason, always speaking truly and acting justly; live simply and serenely, disregarding what others may say about you; be happy with your lot in life, and ready to depart when you're called.

For a man cannot lose either the past or the future: for what a man has not, how can any one take this from him?