Marcus Aurelius Quotes
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401. “The mind in itself wants nothing, unless it creates a want for itself; therefore it is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not perturb and impede itself.”

— Marcus Aurelius

402. “A rational nature admits of nothing but what is serviceable to the rest of mankind.”

— Marcus Aurelius

403. “Consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man’s life is only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead.”

— Marcus Aurelius

404. “Why should any of these things that happen externally distract thee? Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing: cease roving to and fro.”

— Marcus Aurelius

405. “Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind.”

— Marcus Aurelius

406. “Give full attention and devotion to each act.”

— Marcus Aurelius

407. “Death – a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.”

— Marcus Aurelius

408. “The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it – either gratefully better than or bitterly worse than something else that you alone choose.”

— Marcus Aurelius

409. “Always run to the short way; and the short way is the natural: accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason. For such a purpose frees a man from trouble, and warfare, and all artifice and ostentatious display.”

— Marcus Aurelius

410. “Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the Cynic Monimus is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what was said, if a man receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.”

— Marcus Aurelius

411. “Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.”

— Marcus Aurelius

412. “The man who doesn’t know what the universe is doesn’t know where he lives.”

— Marcus Aurelius

413. “People generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they would gladly overtop; so that truth and ceremony are two things.”

— Marcus Aurelius

414. “This is the chief thing: be not perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the universal.”

— Marcus Aurelius

415. “In death, Alexander of Macedon’s end differed no whit from his stable-boy’s. Either both were received into the same generative principle of the universe, or both alike were dispersed into atoms.”

— Marcus Aurelius

416. “The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.”

— Marcus Aurelius

417. “It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.”

— Marcus Aurelius

418. “Receive the gifts of fortune without pride, and part with them without reluctance.”

— Marcus Aurelius

419. “What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.”

— Marcus Aurelius

420. “They know not how many things are signified by the words stealing, sowing, buying, keeping quiet, seeing what ought to be done; for this is not effected by the eyes, but by another kind of vision.”

— Marcus Aurelius

421. “Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives us.”

— Marcus Aurelius

422. “Remember this-that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.”

— Marcus Aurelius

423. “Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.”

— Marcus Aurelius

424. “Thanks to the gods I didn’t spend much time while growing up with my grandfather’s mistress and preserved the flower of my youth, waiting for the proper time to demonstrate my virility.”

— Marcus Aurelius

425. “To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.”

— Marcus Aurelius

426. “What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.”

— Marcus Aurelius

427. “Short is the little time which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain.”

— Marcus Aurelius

428. “My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature – the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.”

— Marcus Aurelius

429. “Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm and trepidation of the town mouse.”

— Marcus Aurelius

430. “Gluttony and drunkenness have two evils attendant on them; they make the carcass smart, as well as the pocket.”

— Marcus Aurelius

431. “Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.”

— Marcus Aurelius

432. “He that lives alone lives in danger; society avoids many dangers.”

— Marcus Aurelius

433. “Consider frequently the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For things are somehow implicated with one another, and all in a way friendly to one another.”

— Marcus Aurelius

434. “Nothing is evil which is according to nature.”

— Marcus Aurelius

435. “Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.”

— Marcus Aurelius

436. “Everything is here for a purpose, from horses to vine shoots. What’s surprising about that? Even the sun will tell you, “I have a purpose,” and the other goods as well.”

— Marcus Aurelius

437. “The sinner sins against himself; the wrongdoer wrongs himself, becoming the worse by his own action.”

— Marcus Aurelius

438. “Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.”

— Marcus Aurelius

439. “How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil.”

— Marcus Aurelius

440. “The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now molds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else...”

— Marcus Aurelius

441. “In man’s life, time is but a moment; being, a flux; sense is dim; the material frame corruptible; soul, an eddy of breath; fortune a thing inscrutable, and fame precarious.”

— Marcus Aurelius

442. “It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it.”

— Marcus Aurelius

443. “Nature insists on whatever benefits the whole.”

— Marcus Aurelius

444. “Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop doing such good.”

— Marcus Aurelius

445. “Do you see what little is required of a man to live a well-tempered and god-fearing life? Obey these precepts, and the gods will ask nothing more.”

— Marcus Aurelius

446. “A lucky chance is constant in nothing but inconstancy.”

— Marcus Aurelius

447. “The true joy of humankind is in doing that which is most proper to our nature; and the first property of people is to be kindly affected towards them that are of one kind with ourselves.”

— Marcus Aurelius

448. “Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?”

— Marcus Aurelius

449. “To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief.”

— Marcus Aurelius

450. “If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness, and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it? And what is the harm to the common weal?”

— Marcus Aurelius