Marcus Aurelius on Wisdom Quotes

"The wise man knows that every interaction is just the first chapter of a very long book."

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."

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

"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking."

"If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it."

"Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it."

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

"Confine yourself to the present."

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

"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."

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

"Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears."

"To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference."

"Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly."

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

"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."

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

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

"Receive without conceit, release without struggle."

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

"Look within. Let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its value escape thee."

"Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig."

"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."

"It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices."

"That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees."

"You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think."

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one."

"Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear."

"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."

"Our life is what our thoughts make it."

"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?"

"Pass through this brief patch of time in harmony with nature, and come to your rest with a good grace, as an olive falls when it is ripe."