1,166 Quotes by 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.

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.

Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.

Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?

Confine yourself to the present.

Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.

You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious. You need to get used to winnowing your thoughts, so that if someone says, "What are your thinking about?" you can respond at once (and truthfully) that you are thinking this or thinking that.

Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.

When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case they're misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?