460 Quotes About Marcus Aurelius

Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.

Give yourself a gift: the present moment.

An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.

In a little while you will have forgotten everything; in a little while everything will have forgotten you.

Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.

Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful -- and hence neither good nor bad.

The flaw which is hidden is deemed greater than it is.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.

Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.

Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason.

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

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

Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before.

This is the mark of a perfect character -- to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

So much worse are the consequences of anger than its causes.

Live each day as if it be your last.

It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres.

External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.

Not to busy myself about vain things, and not easily to believe those things, which are commonly spoken.

Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.

Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their mind.

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.

Nothing that goes on in anyone else's mind can harm you.

He is so rich, he has no room to shit.

Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute in your devotion to duty.

Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.

What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.

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

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

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

Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.

Consider frequently the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For things are somehow implicated with one another, and all in a way friendly to one another.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, This is a misfortune but To bear this worthily is good fortune.

Wherever a man lives, he may live well.

To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.

When you lose your temper or even feel irritated: remember that human life is very short. Before long all of us will be laid out side by side.

Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and ay, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?'

Give full attention and devotion to each act.

It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.

How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.

Look to nothing, not even for a moment except to reason.

Failing to understand the workings of one's own mind is bound to lead to unhappiness.

All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.

Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.

When pain is unbearable it destroys us; when it does not it is bearable.

Persuade me or prove to me that I am mistaken in thought or deed, and I will gladly change -- for it is the truth I seek, and the truth never harmed anyone. Harm comes from persisting in error and clinging to ignorance.

A man's true delight is to do the things he was made for.

Purge your mind of all aimless and idle thoughts, especially those that pry into the affairs of others or wish them ill.

Death, like birth, is one of nature's mysteries, the combining of primal elements and dissolving of the same into the same.

Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.

I am called to man's labour; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?

Use the setback to practice other virtues.

To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.

Whatever happens at all happens as it should; you will find this true, if you watch narrowly.

The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.

Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.

All that happens is as habitual and familiar as roses in spring and fruit in the summer. True too of disease, death, defamation, and conspiracy--and all that delights or gives pain to fools.

The gods sustain and guide all their works.

A little time, and thou shalt close thy eyes; and him who has attended thee to thy grave, another soon will lament.

How many people don't even know your name. How many will soon have forgotten it. How many offer you praise now -- and tomorrow, perhaps, contempt. That to be remembered is worthless. Life fame. Like everything.

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

Live with the gods. And he does so who constantly shows them that his soul is satisfied with what is assigned to him.

I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.

My city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome; but so far as I am a man, it is the world.

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

How unlucky I am that this should happen to me. But not at all. Perhaps, say how lucky I am that I am not broken by what has happened, and I am not afraid of what is about to happen.

Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.

Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.

Everything that happens, happens as it should.

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?

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn't from outside me but in my own assumptions.

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.

That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

The soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then, with a continuous series of such thoughts as these -- that where a man can live, there -- if he will -- he can also live well.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

Not to be driven this way and that, but always behave with justice and see things as they are.

Life is short. That's all there is to say. Get what you can from the present -- thoughtfully, justly.

In reading and writing, you cannot lay down rules until you have learnt to obey them. Much more so in life.

Not to waste time on nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it. Not to be obsessed with quail-fighting or other crazes like that.

Even the stoics agree that certainty is very hard to come at; that our assent is worth little, for where is infallibility to be found?

Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear?

Each day provides its own gifts.

Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.

Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.

Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying anything that deserves to be despised.

Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance -- now, at this very moment -- of all external events. That's all you need.

Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.

Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do. Only what you do.

Can anything that is useful be accomplished without change?

Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.

Always bear this in mind, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.

Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to.

Indifference to external events. And a commitment to justice in your own acts.

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

Observe constantly that all things take place by change.

To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief.

Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.

All those events in history were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.

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

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: 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.

Everything that happens is as simple and familiar as the rose in spring, the fruit in summer: disease, death, blasphemy, conspiracy… everything that makes stupid people happy and angry.

To welcome with affection what is sent by fate.

Dress not thy thoughts in too fine a raiment. And be not a man of superfluous words or superfluous deeds.

There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.

Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm and trepidation of the town mouse.

The stream of tendency in which all things seek to fulfill the law of their being.

Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.

How satisfying it is to dismiss and block out any upsetting or foreign impression, and immediately to have peace in all things.

Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable
to hold out against even this.

You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Body. Soul. Mind. Sensations: the body. Desires: the soul. Reasoning: the mind.

If it's in your control, why do you do it? If it's in someone else's control, then who are you blaming? Atoms? The gods? Stupid either way. Blame no one. Set people straight, if you can. If not, just repair the damage.

Casting aside other things, hold to the precious few; and besides bear in mind that every man lives only the present, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or is uncertain.

Love the people with whom fate brings you together.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.

Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.

From my great-grandfather: not to have attended schools for the public; to have had good teachers at home, and to realize that this is the sort of thing on which one should spend lavishly.

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

All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in circle.

Remember that there is a God who desires neither praise nor glory from men created in his image, but rather that they, guided by the understanding given them, should in their actions become like unto him.

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony.

Poverty is the mother of crime.

My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature -- the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.

All is temporary and ephemeral--fame and the famous, as well.

If man reflects on the changes and transformations which follow one another like wave after wave and their rapidity, he will despise everything which is perishable.

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

How ridiculous not to flee from one's own wickedness, which is possible, yet endeavor to flee from another's which is not.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

If a man comes to his fortieth year, and has any understanding at all, he has virtually seen -- thanks to their similarity -- all possible happenings, both past and to come.

To my soul: Are you ever going to achieve goodness? Ever going to be simple, whole and naked -- as plain to see as the body that contains you?

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.

How much more harmful are the consequences of anger and grief than the circumstances that aroused them in us.

Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised.

Take the shortest route. The one that nature planned -- to speak and act in the healthiest way. Do that, and be free of pain and stress, free of all calculations and pretension.

Remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment.

A person's life is what their thoughts make it.

When you are offended at anyone's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. By attending to them, you will forget your anger and learn to live wisely.

A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.

No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.

When you think you've been injured, apply this rule: If the community isn't injured by it, neither am I. And if it is, anger is not the answer. Show the offender where he went wrong.

A rock is thrown in the air. It loses nothing by coming down, gained nothing by going up.

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

Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.

No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor does one live any other life than that which he will lose.

Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet.

The honest and good man ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.

We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.

Men exist for the sake of one another.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

Give your heart to the trade you have learnt, and draw refreshment from it. Let the rest of your days be spent as one who has whole-heartedly committed his all to the gods and is thenceforth no man's master or slave.

There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude: confidence in yourself.

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.

Everything -- a horse, a vine -- is created for some duty... For what task, then, were you yourself created?

Soon, you will have forgotten everything.
Soon, everybody will have forgotten you.

There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.

It doesn't hurt me unless I interpret it's happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life, -- there, if one must speak out, the real man.

Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.

A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives it.

Life is opinion.

Live your life as if you are ready to say goodbye to it at any moment, as if the time left for you were some pleasant surprise.

Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?

If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from eternity?

Stick to what's in front of you -- idea, action, utterance.

Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.

Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.

Whatever may happen to you was prepared for you from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of your being.

Time is a kind of river, an irresistible flood sweeping up men and events and carrying them headlong, one after the other, to the great sea of being.

The first step: Don't be anxious. Nature controls it all.

The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.

Choose not to be harmed -- and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed -- and you haven't been.

Adapt yourself to the life you have been given, and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you.

In the morning, when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being.

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

To shrug it all off and wipe it clean -- every annoyance and distraction -- and reach utter stillness. Child's play.

Consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man's life is only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead.

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

Death: something like birth, a natural mystery, elements that split and recombine. Not an embarrassing thing. Not an offense to reason, or our nature.

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

The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.

This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate.

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.

Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.

Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.

No more roundabout discussions of what makes a good man. Be one!

Remember: Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate. How small a role you play in it.

Your task is to stand straight; not to be held straight.

Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before his moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus.

Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.

Cinna wishes to seem poor, and is poor.

It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it.

Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of this.

How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil.

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

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.

The world is a living being -- one nature, one soul. Keep that in mind.

If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

Unhappy am I because this has happened to me.- Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.

Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on the mountains… nowhere can a man find a retreat more peaceful or more free from trouble than his own soul.

Life is a stranger's sojourn, a night at an inn.

How good it is, when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this the dead body of a bird or pig.

If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.

Embellish the soul with simplicity, with prudence, and everything which is neither virtuous nor vicious. Love all men. Walk according to God; for, as a poet hath said, his laws govern all.

Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.

The ruling power within, when it is in its natural state, is so related to outer circumstances that it easily changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do.

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

From Apollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason.

You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.

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

You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.

Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.

Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.

Find joy in simplicity, self-respect, and indifference to what lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race. Follow the divine.

All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.

Once you have done a man a service, what more reward would you have? Is it not enough to have obeyed the laws of your own nature, without expecting to be paid for it?

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

All things are in the act of change; thou thyself in ceaseless transformation and partial decay, and the whole universe with thee.

Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.

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.

Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.

Death -- a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.

The true joy of humankind is in doing that which is most proper to our nature; and the first property of people is to be kindly affected towards them that are of one kind with ourselves.

Remember that all is opinion.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

One of the recurring themes in Marcus' handbook is leadership's responsibility to work intelligently with what it is given and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.

Part 3. A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.

Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Fugitive: (n.) one who evades his obligations to others.

But that which is useful is the better.

Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe.

If something is difficult for you to accomplish, do not then think it impossible for any human being; rather, if it is humanly possible and corresponds to human nature, know that it is attainable by you as well.

Dig within. There lies the wellspring of good.

By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.

Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter.

The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

Something good should be a source of pride, correct? ‘Yes'. And can one really take pride in a momentary pleasure? Please don't say yes.

Whoever values peace of mind and the health of the soul will live the best of all possible lives.

This is enough. Do not add, And why were such things made in the world?

Accept everything which happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads to this, the health of the universe.

The sole thing of which any man can be deprived is the present; since this is all he owns, and nobody can lose what is not his.

Above, below, all around are the movements of the elements. But the motion of virtue is in none of these: it is something more divine, and advancing by a way hardly observed it goes happily on its road.

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?'.

All is ephemeral -- fame and the famous as well.

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

The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now molds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else.

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.

I'm going to be meeting with people today who talk too much -- people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won't be surprised or disturbed, for I can't imagine a world without such people.

The passing minute is every man's equal possession but what has once gone by is not ours.

The infallible man does not exist.

In man's life, time is but a moment; being, a flux; sense is dim; the material frame corruptible; soul, an eddy of breath; fortune a thing inscrutable, and fame precarious.

How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long been dead.

Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendour until it is extinguished; and shall the truth which is in thee and justice and temperance be extinguished before thy death?

Do not expect Plato's ideal republic; be satisfied with even the smallest step forward, and consider this no small achievement.

What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.

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.

I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.

Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.

Is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it?

The most complete revenge is not to imitate the aggressor.

You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.

This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material?

An infected mind is a far more dangerous pestilence than any plague -- one only threatens your life, the other destroys your character.

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

You have the power within you to endure anything, for your mere opinion can render it tolerable, perhaps even acceptable, by regarding it as an opportunity for enlightenment or a matter of duty.

Withdraw to the untroubled quietude deep within the soul, and refresh yourself.

When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic-what defines a human being-is to work with others.

You shouldn't give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don't care at all.

If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, 'I awake to do the work of a man.'

When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.

Light may earth's crumbling sand be laid on thee, that dogs may dig thy bones up easily.

Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.

All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it.

The happiness of you life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness -- all of them due to the offenders' ignorance of what is good or evil.

Your manners will depend very much upon the quality of what you frequently think on; for the soul is as it were tinged with the colour and complexion of thought.

Put from you the belief that 'I have been wronged', and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.

Don't be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you've been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?

The world is nothing but change, our life is only perception.

Don't be anxious. Nature controls it all. And before long you'll be no one, nowhere.

Learn to ask of all actions, "Why are they doing that?" Starting with your own.

In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them.

The only thing that isn't worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don't.

The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.

The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.

Nothing befalls any man which he is not fitted to endure.

The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like that.

Anger cannot be dishonest.

Don't be disturbed. Uncomplicate yourself. Someone has done wrong… to himself. Something happens to you. Good. It was meant for you by nature, woven into the pattern from the beginning.

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

You wear a watch to keep on schedule. You buy books on time management. And complain that you're so busy you just don't have enough time in the day.

What we do now echoes in eternity.

If it is not right do not do it. If it is not true do not say it.

A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission.

Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.

Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.

It is within our power not to make a judgement about something, and so not disturb our minds; for nothing in itself possesses the power to form our judgements.

He is a true fugitive who flies from reason.

Think on this doctrine, -- that reasoning beings were created for one another's sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it.

What we do in life ripples in eternity.

Submit to the fate of your own free will.

Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.

To stand up straight -- not straightened.

When you have done a good deed that another has had the benefit of, why do you need a third reward-as fools do-praise for having done well or looking for a favor in return.

The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.

Your life is what your thoughts make it.

Everything in any way beautiful has its beauty of itself, inherent and self-sufficient: praise is no part of it.

Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

Past and future have no power over you. Just the present -- and even that can be minimized.

So other people hurt me? That's their problem. Their character and actions are not mine.

Change your attitude to the things that bother you and you will be aware of them.

All is change. You yourself are continuously changing and being destroyed bit by bit. So is the whole universe.

Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about.

It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

The healthy eye ought to see all visible things and not to say, I wish for green things; for this is the condition of a diseased eye.

Soon you will have forgotten all things: soon all things will have forgotten you.

Never act without purpose and resolve, or without the means to finish the job.

How soon will time cover all things, and how many it has covered already.

No one was ever injured by the truth; but he who persists in self-deception and ignorance is injured.

Everything turns on your assumptions about it, and that's on you. You can pluck out the hasty judgment at will, and like steering a ship around the point, you will find calm seas, fair weather and a safe port.

Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?

Truth and ceremony are two things.

Don't give the small things more time than they deserve.

Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.

The best sort of revenue is not to be like him who did the injury.

It were well to die if there be gods, and sad to live if there be none.

All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.