Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind, free of the future and the past—can make yourself, as Empedocles says, "a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness," and concentrate on living what can be lived (which means the present) Ã¢â'¬Â¦ then you can spend the time you have left in tranquillity. And in kindness. And at peace with the spirit within you.

It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing. - Chapter VI, Verse 52.

It was for the best. So Nature had no choice but to do it.

Let death surprise rue when it will, and where it will, I may be a happy man, nevertheless. For he is a happy man, who in his lifetime dealeth unto himself a happy lot and portion. A happy lot and portion is, good inclinations of the soul, good desires, good actions.

Think of the countless changes in which you yourself have bad a part. The whole universe is change, and life is but what you deem it.

27. How cruel—to forbid people to want what they think is good for them. And yet that's just what you won't let them do when you get angry at their misbehavior. They're drawn toward what they think is good for them. —But it's not good for them. Then show them that. Prove it to them. Instead of losing your temper.

Does anything genuinely beautiful need supplementing? No more than justice does- or truth, or kindness, or humility. Are any of those improved by being praised? Or damaged by contempt? Is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it?

They seek for themselves private retiring places, as country villages, the sea-shore, mountains; yea thou thyself art wont to long much after such places. But all this thou must know proceeds from simplicity in the highest degree. At what time soever thou wilt, it is in thy power to retire into thyself, and to be at rest, and free from all businesses.

Look in, let not either the proper quality, or the true worth of anything pass thee, before thou hast fully apprehended it.

If a thing is in thy own power, why dost thou do it? But if it is in the power of another, whom dost thou blame? The atoms (chance) or the gods? Both are foolish. Thou must blame nobody. For if thou canst, correct that which is the cause; but if thou canst not do this, correct at least the thing itself; but if thou canst not do even this, of what use is it to thee to find fault? For nothing should be done without a purpose.

whether half frozen or well warm; whether only slumbering, or after a full sleep; whether discommended or commended thou do thy duty: or whether dying or doing somewhat else; for that also "to die," must among the rest be reckoned as one of the duties and actions of our lives.

Cuántos de los agasajados con muchos himnos están ya entregados al olvido! ¡Cuántos de los que hicieron esos himnos hace tiempo que están ausentes!

The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me.

So there are two reasons to embrace what happens. One is that it's happening to you. It was prescribed for you, and it pertains to you. The thread was spun long ago, by the oldest cause of all.

The other is that all these things, which thou seest, change immediately and will no longer be; and constantly bear in mind how many of these changes thou hast already witnessed. The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realize the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.

Meditations 9.40. "But those are things the gods left up to me," protests one voice, to which another responds, "And what makes you think the gods don't care about what's up to us?

não te lamentes com as dificuldades fixadas pelo destino no presente nem temas ou procures fugir do que para ti está reservado no futuro.

Antes de llevar a cabo cualquier acto, pregúntate: ¿para qué me servirá? ¿Me arrepentiré? Dentro de poco ya no existiré, todo habrá desaparecido para mí. ¿Qué puedo esperar más, si mi acto presente es digno de un ser inteligente, sociable y sometido a la misma ley de Dios?

Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature; a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same;

If his mind is filled with nobility, with a grasp of all time, all existence, do you think our human life will mean much to him at all?' " Ã¢â'¬ËœHow could it?' he said. " Ã¢â'¬ËœOr death be very frightening?' " 'Not in the least.

No te avergüences de recibir ayuda porque tienes delante realizar la tarea que te corresponde como el soldado que ataca una muralla. ¿

Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art.

there is a limit to the time assigned you, and if youdon't use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.