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Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Total quotes: 27
“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose
Tagged: harmony, Peace, Self-Acceptance, Living in peace
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts…”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Happiness, Thoughts, Thinking, way of thinking
“If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Acceptance, Mistakes, Correcting Mistakes
“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work – as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Tagged: Motivational, motivation, Encouragement, Life, life advice, Inspirational, Living
“Firm perseverance in decisions which are taken after mature reflection.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Tagged: Obstacles
“A cucumber is bitter— throw it away. There are briars in the path— turn aside from them. This is enough.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Tagged: Attitude, distancing yourself, Choosing the Right People, Choosing Friends, Living A Balanced Life, Life
“External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.

If the problem is something in your own character, who's stopping you from setting your mind straight?”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: Impressions
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Tagged: Seize The Day, Priviledge, alive, Think, Perspective
“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: comparison, Gossip, Integrity, Obsessive Comparison Disorder
“Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Tagged: Future, Reason, present, worry
“No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No impression in your thoughts. No retreating into your own soul or try to escape it. No overactivity.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: Persistance
“In the first place: nothing at random, and nothing that is not related to some goal. 

Second: do not relate your actions to anything other than a goal which may serve the human community.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault
Tagged: Amor fati
“...greet that which does not depend on us serenely and without regrets, and use this obstacle to practice another virtue.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: emotions
“It's unfortunate this happened. No. It's fortunate...and I have remained unharmed.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: Flip
“The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out.
There are branches in the path? Then go around them.
That's all you need to know. Nothing more. Don't demand to know 'why something exists.'”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: Impressions
“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Tagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness
“What we do now echoes in eternity.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness, Philosophy, 107 Of The Greatest Single Sentences In Literature, Perfect Sentences
“Nature is pliable, obedient.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: Pragmatism
“It is not the actions of others which trouble us (for those actions are controlled by their governing part), but rather it is our own judgments. Therefore remove those judgments and resolve to let go of your anger, and it will already be gone. How do you let go? By realizing that such actions are not shameful to you.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Tagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness, Psychology, Philosophy
“In the morning when thou risest 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?”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
“Cheerfulness in all circumstances as well as dignity.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Selections From the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold
Tagged: Amor fati
“Nothing but what you get from first impressions. That someone has invited you, for instance. That–but not that it's done you any harm. The fact that my son is sick–that I can see. But 'that he might die of it,' no. Stick with first impressions. Don't extrapolate. And nothing can happen to you.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: Impressions
“Commodus: Have I missed it? Have I missed the battle?

[Commodus embraces him]

Marcus Aurelius: You have missed the war.

Commodus: Father, congratulations. I shall sacrifice a hundred bulls to honor your triumph.

Marcus Aurelius: Save the bulls. Honor Maximus. He won the battle.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Gladiator
Tagged: Battle, War, Bulls, Triumph
“The wonderful thing about [nature's] workmanship is how, faced with that limitation, it takes everything within it that seems broken, old, and useless, transforms it into itself and makes new things from it. So that it doesn't need material from any outside source, or anywhere to dispose of what's leftover. It relies on itself for all it needs: space, material, and labor.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations
Tagged: Seize The Moment
“
Marcus Aurelius: Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?

Commodus: Yes, father.

Marcus Aurelius: You will not be emperor.

Commodus: Which wiser, older man is to take my place?

Marcus Aurelius: My powers will pass to Maximus, to hold in trust until the Senate is ready to rule once more. Rome is to be a republic again.

Commodus: Maximus?

Marcus Aurelius: Yes. [Marcus moves his hand to touch Commodus’ face and Commodus turns away] My decision disappoints you?

Commodus: You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues: Wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, father. Ambition. That can be a virtue when it drives us to excel. Resourcefulness, courage, perhaps not on the battlefield, but…there are many forms of courage. Devotion, to my family, to you. But none of my virtues were on your list. Even then it was as if you didn’t want me for your son.

Marcus Aurelius: Oh, Commodus. You go too far.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Gladiator
Tagged: Rome, Duty, emperor, Wisdom, Devotion
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