The Essential Marcus Aurelius Quotes

“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.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“Remember how long you have been putting these things off, and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods and have not made use of it. By now you ought to realize what cosmos you are apart of, and what divine administrator you owe your existence to, and that an end to your time here has been marked out, and if you do not use this time for clearing the clouds from your mind, it will be gone and so will you.”
― Jacob Needleman, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“What an abundance of leisure the person gains who is not looking over at what his neighbor is saying, doing, or thinking, but only at what he himself is doing, in order that he does what is just and respectful of the gods. As Agathon4 said, do not peer into the darkness of another’s character, but run straight toward the finish line without straying from your path.”
― Jacob Needleman, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“The truly fortunate person has created his own good fortune through good habits of the soul, good intentions, and good actions.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“The goal that you hope you will one day arrive at after a long and roundabout journey you are able to possess right now, if only you do not deny it to yourself. That is, if you can let go of the past, entrust the future to Providence and redirect the present according to justice and the sacred. To the sacred, so that you welcome what has been given to you, for Nature has brought this to you, and you to it; and to justice, in order that you may speak the truth freely and without distortion, and that you may act in accordance with what is lawful and right. Do not allow yourself to be hindered by the harmful actions, judgments, or the words of another, or by the sensations of the flesh which has formed itself around you. Let the body take care of those. But if, when you have come to the end, having let go of all other things, you honor only your guiding part and the divinity that is within you, and you do not fear ceasing to live so much as you fear never having begun to live in accordance with Nature--then you will be a man who is worth of the Cosmos that created you; and you will cease to live like a stranger in your own land, that is, surprised at unexpected everyday occurrences and wholly distracted by this and that.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“guarding your freedom each and every hour with kindness, simplicity, and self-respect.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“Each thing has come into existence for a specific purpose, like a horse or a grapevine. Even the sun would say: “I exist for a purpose,” and also the other gods.18 What, then, is your purpose? To feel pleasure? See if the mind will allow such a thought.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“Turn your attention within, for the fountain of all that is good lies within, and it is always ready to pour forth, if you continually delve in.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“Nothing is so productive of greatness of mind as the ability to examine systematically and truthfully each thing we encounter in life, and to see these things in such a way as to comprehend the nature of the Cosmos.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“The duration of a person’s life is only a moment; our substance is flowing away this very moment; the senses are dim; the composition of the body is decaying, the soul is chaos, our fate is unknowable, and reputation uncertain. In a word all bodily things are like a flowing river, and everything of the soul is dream and smoke, and life is all warfare and a stranger’s wanderings, and the reward is oblivion. What then could possibly guide us? Only one thing: Philosophy.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“The person who loves reputation supposes that his own good depends on the activities of others; the lover of pleasure finds his own good in being affected by his emotions. But the person who has Intelligence understands the good to be in his own actions.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“If the gods have made decisions concerning me, in particular what must happen to me, no doubt they have made good decisions, for not easily could one conceive of a god who is lacking in wisdom. And what reason would he have for wanting to harm me? What benefit could there be to the Whole, for which they care most of all? But if they have not made decisions concerning me alone but have done so concerning the Whole, then I am obliged to welcome and be content with all that happens to me according to this sequence of natural events. If, however, they make no decisions—blasphemous to think, or else let us no longer sacrifice, pray, swear by them, or do any of the other things which we do in the belief that they are present and live among us—if it is indeed the case that they do not make decisions concerning my interests, it nevertheless remains within my power to make decisions concerning myself. My search is for what is beneficial. The benefit for each is in accordance with how they are made and their specific nature, and my nature pertains both to Reason and to society. My city is Rome, insofar as I am Antoninus; but insofar as I am a human being, my city is the Cosmos. Therefore all that benefits these cities is alone my good.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“Receive without conceit; release without a struggle.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius

“That power which rules us from inside, when it is in its natural state, stands in such a way in relation to whatever may happen that it easily adapts itself at all times both to its own capabilities and what it has been given by fate. For it is not attracted toward one kind of material thing or event but adapts itself to all internal and external limitations, whether those limitations are due to ability or fate. Nevertheless, it converts into usable fuel anything that opposes it, just as fire does when it consumes what is thrown upon it, by which a small fire would have been extinguished. But a blazing fire quickly assimilates to itself whatever is cast upon it, engulfing it as fuel and rising even higher because of it.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Essential Marcus Aurelius