Top 500 Marcus Aurelius Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.”

— Marcus Aurelius

102. “The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.”

— Marcus Aurelius

103. “Nature in no case cometh short of art, for the arts are copiers of natural forms.”

— Marcus Aurelius

104. “The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”

— Marcus Aurelius

105. “Do every act of your life as if it were your last.”

— Marcus Aurelius

106. “Do not be wise in words – be wise in deeds.”

— Marcus Aurelius

107. “The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.”

— Marcus Aurelius

108. “You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves.”

— Marcus Aurelius

109. “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

110. “Live your life as if you are ready to say goodbye to it at any moment, as if the time left for you were some pleasant surprise.”

— Marcus Aurelius

111. “Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.”

— Marcus Aurelius

112. “Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.”

— Marcus Aurelius

113. “How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”

— Marcus Aurelius

114. “You have to assemble your life yourself – action by action.”

— Marcus Aurelius

115. “Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‘This is a misfortune’ but ‘To bear this worthily is good fortune.’”

— Marcus Aurelius

116. “Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?”

— Marcus Aurelius

117. “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

118. “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

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

— Marcus Aurelius

120. “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”

— Marcus Aurelius

121. “The body of an actor can be either his best friend or his worst enemy.”

— Marcus Aurelius

122. “It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.”

— Marcus Aurelius

123. “A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.”

— Marcus Aurelius

124. “If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, ‘I awake to do the work of a man.’”

— Marcus Aurelius

125. “Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.”

— Marcus Aurelius

126. “Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.”

— Marcus Aurelius

127. “There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile.”

— Marcus Aurelius

128. “Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.”

— Marcus Aurelius

129. “Stop whatever you’re doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won’t be able to do this anymore?”

— Marcus Aurelius

130. “Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”

— Marcus Aurelius

131. “There is but one thing of real value – to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.”

— Marcus Aurelius

132. “Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?”

— Marcus Aurelius

133. “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

134. “That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.”

— Marcus Aurelius

135. “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

136. “It is not the body, nor the personality that is the true self. The true self is eternal. Even on the point of death we can say to ourselves, “my true self is free. I cannot be contained.””

— Marcus Aurelius

137. “Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.”

— Marcus Aurelius

138. “The universe is in change, life is an opinion.”

— Marcus Aurelius

139. “The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.”

— Marcus Aurelius

140. “Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it – turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself, so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.”

— Marcus Aurelius

141. “Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.”

— Marcus Aurelius

142. “In the morning, when you are sluggish about getting up, let this thought be present: ‘I am rising to a man’s work.’”

— Marcus Aurelius

143. “External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.”

— Marcus Aurelius

144. “Your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.”

— Marcus Aurelius

145. “It’s normal to feel pain in your hands and feet, if you’re using your feet as feet and your hands as hands. And for a human being to feel stress is normal – if he’s living a normal life. And if it’s normal, how can it be bad?”

— Marcus Aurelius

146. “Because other people are fools, must you be so too?”

— Marcus Aurelius

147. “Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.”

— Marcus Aurelius

148. “My true Self is free. I cannot be contained.”

— Marcus Aurelius

149. “Life is short. That’s all there is to say. Get what you can from the present – thoughtfully, justly.”

— Marcus Aurelius

150. “All is as thinking makes it so.”

— Marcus Aurelius