[Ecis2023]
Marcus Aurelius is one of the most revered historical figures from Ancient Rome. Famous for being a wise Emperor during his time, he had many great quotes that could be applied to contemporary society. Many new-age figures have latched onto his wisdom for inspiration and growth. Whether you’re looking for personal or professional guidance, there are many famous Marcus Aurelius quotes that apply to every aspect of your life fromthe famous Roman emperor.
You are reading: Best Marcus Aurelius Quotes Help You Meditation [ecis2023]
Marcus Aurelius Meditations Quotes
“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Do every act of your life as if it were your last.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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
“Brief is man’s life and small the nook of the earth where he lives; brief, too, is the longest posthumous fame, buoyed only by a succession of poor human beings who will very soon die and who know little of themselves, much less of someone who died long ago.” – Marcus Aurelius
“True good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, good actions.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not “This is a misfortune,” but “To bear this worthily is good fortune”.
“Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence. ” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A rock is thrown in the air. It loses nothing by coming down, gained nothing by going up.” – Marcus Aurelius
“If someone responds to insult like a rock, what has the abuser gained with his invective?” – Marcus Aurelius
“Stick to what’s in front of you – idea, action, utterance.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” – Marcus Aurelius
“The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.” – Marcus Aurelius
Quotes By Marcus Aurelius
“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Be content with what you are, and wish not to change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Consider that before long you will be nobody and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist that you now see, nor any of those who are now living. For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned and to perish in order that other things in continuous succession may exist.”
“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. 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 and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.” – Marcus Aurelius
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. ” – Marcus Aurelius
“To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.” – Marcus Aurelius
“To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Confine yourself to the present.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Straight, not straightened.” – Marcus Aurelius
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time.” – Marcus Aurelius
“That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.” – Marcus Aurelius
“To live happily is an inward power of the soul.” – Marcus Aurelius
Meditation Marcus Aurelius Quotes On Life
“Stop wishing for something else to happen, for a different fate. That is to live a false life.” – Marcus Aurelius
“While you live, while it is in your power, be good.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Life is neither good nor evil, but only a place for good and evil.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Every day as it comes should be welcomed and reduced forthwith into our own possession as if it were the finest day imaginable. What flies past has to be seized at.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Consider that as the heaps of sand piled on one another hide the former sands, so in life, the events that go before are soon covered by those that come after.” – Marcus Aurelius
“What is the goal of virtue, after all, except a life that flows smoothly?” – Marcus Aurelius
“For where else is friendship found if not with fairness, reliability, and respect for virtue only?” – Marcus Aurelius
“You will give yourself relief if you do every act of your life as if it were the last.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A nobleman compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Mastery of reading and writing requires a master. Still, more so life.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Just ask whether they put their self-interest in externals or in moral choice. If it’s in externals, you cannot call them friends, any more than you can call them trustworthy, consistent, courageous or free.” – Marcus Aurelius
“If at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, honesty, self-control, courage – than a mind satisfied that is has succeeded in enabling you to act rationally, and satisfied to accept what’s beyond its control – if you find anything better than that, embrace it without reservations – it must be an extraordinary thing indeed – and enjoy it to the full.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Where a man can live, he can also live well.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Treat what you don’t have as nonexistent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you’d crave them if you didn’t have them. But be careful. Don’t feel such satisfaction that you start to overvalue them – that it would upset you to lose them.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Be cheerful also, and do not seek external help or the tranquillity that others give. A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets that are sudden and unexpected.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The history of your life is now complete and your service is ended: and how many beautiful things you have seen; and how many pleasures and pains you have despised; and how many things called honorable you have spurned, and to how many ill-minded folks you have shown a kind disposition.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Enough of this miserable, whining life. Stop monkeying around! Why are you troubled? What’s new here? What’s so confounding? Is the one responsible? Take a good look. Or just the matter itself? Then look at that. There’s nothing else to look at. And as far as the gods go, by now you could try being more straightforward and kind. It’s the same, whether you’ve examined these things for a hundred years, or only three.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.” – Marcus Aurelius
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Meditations By Marcus Aurelius Quotes
“Keep at it… As a blazing fire takes whatever you throw on it, and makes it light and flame.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Look within. Within is the foundation of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one.” – Marcus Aurelius
“As if you had died and your life had extended only to this present moment, use the surplus that is left to you to live from this time onward according to nature.” – Marcus Aurelius
“There were two vices much blacker and more serious than the rest: lack of persistence and lack of self-control… persist and resist.” – Marcus Aurelius
“It is our own opinions that disturb us. Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss your judgment about an act as if it were something grievous, and your anger is gone.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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 calculation and pretention.” – Marcus Aurelius
“It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.” – Marcus Aurelius
“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.” – Marcus Aurelius
“When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance, revert at once to yourself and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of harmony if you keep going back to it.” – Marcus Aurelius
“If you didn’t learn these things in order to demonstrate them in practice, what did you learn them for?” – Marcus Aurelius
“How long will you wait before you demand the best of yourself, and trust reason to determine what is best?” – Marcus Aurelius
“‘I will throw you into prison.’ Correction – it is my body you will throw there.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.” – Marcus Aurelius
“People with a strong physical constitution can tolerate extremes of hot and cold; people of strong mental health can handle anger, grief, joy and the other emotions.” – Marcus Aurelius
“It is in your power to live here. But if men do not permit you, then getaway out of life, as if you were suffering no harm. The house is smoky, and I quit it. Why do you think that this is any trouble? But so long as nothing of the kind drives me out, I remain, am free, and no man shall hinder me from doing what I choose, and I choose to do what is according to the nature of the rational and social animal.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“In the morning, when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being.” – Marcus Aurelius
“When faced with anything painful or pleasurable, anything bringing glory or disrepute, realize that the crisis is now, that the Olympics have started, and waiting is no longer an option; that the chance for progress, to keep or lose, turns on the events of a single day.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“No man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.” – Marcus Aurelius
Wise Marcus Aurelius Quotes
“As it is with a play, so it is with life – what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is. It is not important at what point you stop. Stop wherever you will – only make sure that you round it off with a good ending.” – Marcus Aurelius
“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.” – Marcus Aurelius
“He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing.” – Marcus Aurelius
“If someone is incapable of distinguishing good things from bad and neutral things from either – well, how could such a person be capable of love? The power to love, then, belongs only to the wise man.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Take care that you don’t treat inhumanity as it treats human beings.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A person’s worth is measured by the worth of what he values.” – Marcus Aurelius
“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Most of us dread the deadening of the body and will do anything to avoid it. About the deadening of the soul, however, we don’t care one iota.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Don’t let outward appearances mislead you into thinking that someone with more prestige, power or some other distinction must on that account be happy.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The mind in itself has no needs, except for those it creates itself. Is undisturbed, except for its own disturbances. Knows no obstructions, except those from within.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Either you’re going to be depressed when your wish is not realized or foolishly pleased with yourself if it is, overjoyed for the wrong reasons.” – Marcus Aurelius
“I say that virtue is more valuable than wealth to the same degree that eyes are more valuable than fingernails.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Your three components: body, breath, mind. Two are yours in trust; to the third alone you have clear title.” – Marcus Aurelius
“No one objects to what is useful to him. To be of use to others is natural. Then don’t object to what is useful to you – being of use.” – Marcus Aurelius
“When I see that one thing [virtue] is supreme and most important, I cannot say that something else is, just to make you happy.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A boxer derives the greatest advantage from his sparring partner – and my accuser is my sparring partner. He trains me in patience, civility and even temper.” – Marcus Aurelius
“If you lost the capacity to read, or play music, you would think it was a disaster, but you think nothing of losing the capacity to be honest, decent and civilized.” – Marcus Aurelius
“As you are careful when you walk not to step on a nail or turn your ankle, so you should take care not to do any injury to your character at the same time.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A thing is neither better nor worse for having been praised.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; so our perturbations come only from our inner opinions.” – Marcus Aurelius
“We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Whatever anyone does or says, I must be good, just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this, whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
Funny And Surprising Marcus Aurelius Quotes
“Have I been made for this, to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm?” – Marcus Aurelius
“Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.” – Marcus Aurelius
“It is just charming how people boast about qualities beyond their control. For instance, ‘I am better than you because I have many estates, while you are practically starving’; or, ‘I’m a consul,’ ‘I’m a governor,’ or ‘I have fine curly hair.’” – Marcus Aurelius
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“How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, this they set much value on.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A cucumber is bitter.” Throw it away. “There are briars in the road.” Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, “And why were such things made in the world?” – Marcus Aurelius
“‘But I get to wear a crown of gold.’ If you have your heart set on wearing crowns, why not make one out of roses – you will look even more elegant in that.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Who exactly are these people that you want to be admired by? Aren’t they the same people you are in the habit of calling crazy? And is this your life ambition, then – to win the approval of lunatics?” – Marcus Aurelius
“Consider what men are when they are eating, sleeping, coupling, evacuating, and so forth. Then what kind of men they are when they are imperious and arrogant, or angry and scolding from their elevated place.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Let us overlook many things in those who are like antagonists in the gymnasium. For it is in our power, as I said, to get out of the way and to have no suspicion or hatred.” – Marcus Aurelius
“If you learn that someone is speaking ill of you, don’t try to defend yourself against the rumors; respond instead with, ‘Yes, and he doesn’t know the half of it, because he could have said more.” – Marcus Aurelius
“He who has a vehement desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a speck of semen tomorrow will be a mummy or ashes.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Under no circumstances ever say ‘I have lost something,’ only ‘I returned it.’” – Marcus Aurelius
“For all their compliments do verses pay? They may not, yet these same poems make me gay.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Do you have a reason? I have. Why then do you not use it?” – Marcus Aurelius
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Deep Marcus Aurelius Quotes
“Consider that everything is an opinion, and opinion is in your power. Take away then, when you choose, your opinion, and like a mariner who has rounded the headland, you will find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Objective judgment, 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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Don’t believe your situation is genuinely bad – no one can make you do that. Is there smoke in the house? If it’s not suffocating, I will stay indoors; if it proves too much, I’ll leave. Always remember – the door is open.” – Marcus Aurelius
“You shouldn’t give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don’t care at all.” – Marcus Aurelius
“What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Someone bathes in haste; don’t say he bathes badly but in haste. Someone drinks a lot of wine; don’t say he drinks badly, but a lot. Until you know their reasons, how do you know that their actions are vicious?” – Marcus Aurelius
“Passions stem from frustrated desire.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Everything that happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Do little, if you want contentment of mind.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Whatever man you meet with, immediately say to yourself: “What opinions has this man about good and bad?”
“To the rational animal the same act is at once according to nature and according to reason.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Poverty’s no evil to anyone unless he kicks against it.
“The present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived if it is true that this is the only thing which he has, and that a man cannot lose something he does not already possess.” – Marcus Aurelius
“You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.” – Marcus Aurelius
“To do harm is to do yourself harm. To do an injustice is to do yourself an injustice.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Since the greatest part of what we say and do is unnecessary, dispensing with such activities affords a man more leisure and less uneasiness.” – Marcus Aurelius
“To have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more will you see?” – Marcus Aurelius
“Glory paid to our ashes comes too late.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.” – Marcus Aurelius
“If something does not make a person worse in himself, neither does it make his life worse, nor does it harm him without or within.” – Marcus Aurelius
“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.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The flaw which is hidden is deemed greater than it is.” – Marcus Aurelius
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Short Marcus Aurelius Quotes
“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The rational animal is consequently also a social animal.” – Marcus Aurelius
“To accept without arrogance, to let it go with indifference.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Each day provides its own gifts.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Give yourself a gift: the present moment.” – Marcus Aurelius
“What illusion about myself do I entertain?” – Marcus Aurelius
“Nothing should be done without a purpose.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Even the smallest thing should be done with reference to an end.” – Marcus Aurelius
“What is your art? To be good.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A man should be upright, not be kept upright.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Glory’s an empty, changeable thing, as fickle as the weather.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Poverty is the mother of crime.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Anger cannot be dishonest.” – Marcus Aurelius
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