Aurelius, Marcus (Marcus Aurelius)

If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; if we begin with doubts, and are patient, we shall end in certainties.
-- Marcus Aurelius

A man should be upright, not kept upright.
-- Marcus Aurelius

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
-- Marcus Aurelius

Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill. (2.1)
-- Marcus Aurelius

You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last. (2.5)
-- Marcus Aurelius

A man should be upright, not kept upright. (3.5)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. (3.7)
-- Marcus Aurelius

The Universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. (4.3)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Whatever happens at all happens as it should. You will find this true, if you watch closely. (4.10)
-- Marcus Aurelius

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. (4.18)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised. (4.20)
-- Marcus Aurelius

All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you. (4.23)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Remember this
-- Marcus Aurelius

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to. (4.38)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web. (4.40)
-- Marcus Aurelius

If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common. If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left undone is common. If this be so, law also is common; if this be so, we are citizens; if this be so, we are partakers in one constitution; if this be so, the Universe is a kind of Commonwealth. (4.4) as translated by ASL Farquharson
-- Marcus Aurelius

At dawn of day, when you dislike being called, have this thought ready: "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?" (5.1) as translated by ASL Farquharson
-- Marcus Aurelius

All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been co-ordinated, and they combine to make up the same universe. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one god who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, and one reason. (7.9)
-- Marcus Aurelius

It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him. (7.22)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Very little is needed to make a happy life. (7.67)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation. (8.22)
-- Marcus Aurelius

Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and infinite other things. There is one common substance, though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among several natures and individual limitations. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided. (12.30)
-- 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

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.
-- Marcus Aurelius

Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
-- Marcus Aurelius

If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; if we begin with doubts, and are patient, we shall end in certainties.
-- 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 life the three acts are the whole drama; for what shall be a complete drama is determined by him who was once the cause of its composition, and now of its dissolution: but thou art not the cause of neither. Depart then satisfied; for he also who releases thee is satisfied.
-- Marcus Aurelius

Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
-- Marcus Aurelius

One can live well even in a palace.
-- 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

Think of the totality of all Being, and what a mite of it is yours; think of all Time, and the brief fleeting instant of it that is allotted to yourself; think of Destiny, and how puny a part of it you are.
-- Marcus Aurelius

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.
-- Marcus Aurelius

The universe is change; life is what thinking makes it.

-- Marcus Aurelius

Remember that no one loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses.

-- Marcus Aurelius

And you will give yourself peace if you perform each act as if it were your last.

-- Marcus Aurelius

Everything is ephemeral, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.

-- Marcus Aurelius

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