Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

La perfección moral lleva consigo que se viva cada día como si fuere el ultimo, sin apresurarse ni amilanarse, ni obrar con ficción.

that the happy life depends on the fewest possible things;

In every action ask thyself, How does it affect me? Shall I regret it? But

If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.

Today I escaped from all bothering circumstances- or rather I threw them out. They were nothing external, but inside me, just my own judgements. p87

If you want to be able to perform under pressure, you need to learn to play tired.

Thou mayst burst thyself with rage, but they will go on doing the same things none the less.

Such as thy thoughts and ordinary cogitations are, such will thy mind be in time. For the soul doth as it were receive its tincture from the fancies, and imaginations.

When forced, as it seems, by thine environment to be utterly disquieted, return with all speed into thy self, staying in discord no longer than thou must. By constant recurrence to the harmony, thou wilt gain more command over it.

In reading and writing thou must learn first to follow instruction before thou canst give it. Much more is this true of life.

Get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue—if you care for yourself at all—and do it while you can.

Tienes en tu mano el revivir. Mira de nuevo las cosas con los mismo ojos que antes las haz visto, que en esto consiste el revivir.

Do thy work not as a drudge, nor as desirous of pity or praise. Desire one thing only, to act or not to act as civic reason directs.

This day have I got me out of all trouble, or rather have cast out all trouble, for it was not from without, but within, in my own imagination.

For by these the mind doth turn and convert any impediment whatsoever, to be her aim and purpose. So that what before was the impediment, is now the principal object of her working; and that which before was in her way, is now her readiest way.

To what use then am I putting my soul? Never fail to ask thyself this question and to cross-examine thyself thus: What relation have I to this part of me which they call the ruling Reason? And whose Soul have I got now? The Soul of a child? Of a youth? Of a woman? Of a tyrant? Of a domestic animal? Of a wild beast?

Let no one have the chance to accuse you, with any truth, of not being sincere or a good man: make sure that anyone taking this view of you is a liar. This is wholly up to you- who is there to prevent you being good and sincere? You must just decide to live no longer if you won't have these qualities. And reason too abandons the man who won't. p102

Change is the universal experience. Thou art thyself undergoing a perpetual transformation and, in some sort, decay: aye and the whole Universe as well.

Like an attachment to a sparrow: we glimpse it and it's gone.

Everything lasts for a day, the one who remembers and the remembered.

Habite en ti la serenidad, la ausencia de necesidad de ayuda externa y de la tranquilidad que procuran otros. Conviene, por consiguiente, mantenerse recto, no enderezado.

As for my mind all things which are not within the verge of her own operation, are indifferent unto her, and for her own operations, those altogether depend of her.

The model for the application of your principles is the boxer rather than the gladiator, The gladiator puts down or takes up the sword he uses, but the boxer always has his hands and needs only to clench them into fists. p117

What is outside the scope of my mind has absolutely no concern with my mind. Learn this lesson and thou standest erect.