Marcus Aurelius Quotes: 150+ Stoic Lessons on Discipline, Duty, and Inner Strength
Marcus Aurelius Quotes
150+ Authentic Stoic Thoughts from Meditations
Here you can find 150+ Authentic Marcus Aurelius Quotes. Explore this page full of timeless Stoic Wisdom. Including links to the blog posts where they were used on Via Stoica. These quotes by Marcus Aurelius are taken from the Gregory Hays translation. Use this tool for your reference and inspiration.
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Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic Emperor, wrote his thoughts in his personal journal. The quotes you can find here are mainly taken from his Meditations. While written almost 2000 years ago, they still ring true today.
“That sort of person is bound to do that. You might as well resent a fig tree for secreting juice. (Anyway, before very long you’ll both be death – death and soon forgotten.)”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, book 4.6
Post: On Dealing with Frustrating People
“To stand up straight – not straightened.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, book 3.5
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“The best revenge is not to be like that”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.6
Post: On Dealing with the General Public, The Stoic View on Revenge
“From Rusticus: “To read attentively – not to be satisfied with ‘just getting the gist of it’.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.7
Post: On Reading, Stoic Reading Habits
Marcus Aurelius Quote on Purpose:
“To stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.16
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“If you seek tranquillity, do less.”
Democritus, Frg. B.3, From Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.24
Post: What is Temperance, The Stoic Approach to Doing Less
“The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.”
Democritus, Frg. B.115, From Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.3
Post: On Change, Perception and Change in Stoicism, How to Practice Memento Mori
“Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What’s closer to nature’s heart?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.18
Post: On Change, Marcus Aurelius Quote on Change
“And if you can’t stop prizing a lot of other things? Then you’ll never be free.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.16
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“Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.7
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“The best revenge is not to be like that.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.6
Marcus Aurelius on Love and Emotions
“Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.9
Post: How to Control Anger Through Stoicism, What is Apatheia?, What is the Stoic Emotional Focus?
“Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him, for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet or eyelids, or the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law – and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.1
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“And why is it so hard when things go against you? If it’s imposed by nature, accept it gladly and stop fighting it. And if not, work out what your own nature requires, and aim at that, even if it brings you no glory. None of us is forbidden to pursue our own good.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.16
Post: How to Know Yourself, How to Practice Stoic Acceptance of What Is?
“Learn to ask of all action, ‘Why are they doing that?’ Starting with your own.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.37
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“If an action or utterance is appropriate, then it’s appropriate for you. Don’t be put off by other people’s comments and criticism. If it’s right to say or do it, then it’s the right thing for you to do or say. The others obey their own lead, follow their own impulses. Don’t be distracted. Keep walking. Follow your own nature, and follow Nature – along the road they share.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.3
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“So other people hurt me? That’s their problem. Their character and actions are not mine. What is done to me is ordained by nature, what I do by my own.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.25
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“Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their minds.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.53
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“Three relationships i. with the body you inhabit ii. with the divine, the cause of everything in all things iii. with the people around you
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.27
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Marcus Aurelius quote on our role in society
“People exist for one another. You can instruct or endure them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.59
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“Self-reliance, always. And Cheerfulness.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.16
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“How to act: Cheerfulness. Without requiring other people’s help. Or serenity supplied by others.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.5
Post: How to Enjoy Life as a Stoic, Stoic Cheerfulness
“If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy, and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged as if you might have to give it back at any moment – if you embrace this without fear or expectations – can find fulfilment in what you’re doing now, as Nature intended, and in superhuman truthfulness (every word, every utterance) – then your life will be happy. – No one can prevent that.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.13
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“Look inward. Don’t let the true nature or value of anything elude you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.3
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“You cannot lose another life than the one you’re living now, or lie another one that the one you’re losing.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.14
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Thoughts on Change
“Some things are rushing into existence, others out of it. Some of what now exists is already gone. Change and flux constantly remake the world, just as the incessant progression of time remakes eternity.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.15
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“Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone – those that are now, and those to come. Existence flows past us like a river: the ‘what’ is in constant flux, the ‘why’ has a thousand variations.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.23
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“Look at the past – empire after empire – and from that, extrapolate the future: the same thing. No escape from the rhythm of events.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.49
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“To read attentively – not to be satisfied with ‘just getting the gist of it’.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.7
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“To investigate and analyse, with understanding and logic, the principles we ought to live by. Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.9
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“Character and self-control.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.1
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“Not to waste time on nonsense.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.6
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“The sense he gave of staying on the path rather than being kept on it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.15
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“Yes, keep on degrading yourself, soul. But soon your chance at dignity will be gone. Everyone gets one life. Yours is almost used up, and instead of treating yourself with respect, you have entrusted your own happiness to the souls of others.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.6
Post: How to Overcome Self-Doubt
“Your ability to control your thoughts – treat it with respect. It’s all that protects your mind from false perceptions – false to your nature, and that of all rational beings. It’s what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submissions to the divine.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.9
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“Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.13
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A quote on the True Value
“Look inward. Don’t let the true nature or value of anything elude you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.3
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“Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people – unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.4
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“You participate in a society by your existence. Then participate in its life through your actions – all your actions. Any actions not directed toward a social end (directly or indirectly) is a disturbance to your life, an obstacle to wholeness, a source of dissension. Like the man in the Assembly – a faction to himself, always out of step with the majority.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.23
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“And then you might see what the life of the good man is like – someone content with what nature assigns him, and satisfied with being just and kind himself.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.25
Post: How to Be Alone, What is the Stoic Man?
“There you are still below your quota. You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.1
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“The things ordained for you – teach yourself to be at one with those. And the people who share them with you – treat them with love. With real love.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.39
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“To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater Harmony.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.57
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“Don’t gussy up your thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, book 3.5
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Marcus Aurelius on being in the present
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. If the gods exist, then to abandon human beings is not frightening; the gods would never subject you to harm. And if they don’t exist, or don’t care what happens to us, what would be the point of living in a world without gods or Providence? But they do exist, they do care what happens to us, and everything a person needs to avoid real harm they have places within him. If there were anything harmful on the other side of death, they would have made sure that the ability to avoid it was within you. If if doesn’t harm your character, how can it harm your life?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.11
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“Characteristics of the rational soul: Self-perception, self-examination, and the power to make of itself whatever it wants.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.1
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“To put up with discomforts and not make demands.”
Marcus aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.5
Post: How to Reflect Like a Stoic, What is the Stoic Man?
“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter… Because dying, too, is one of our assignments in life. There as well: ‘to do what needs doing.’”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.2
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“Possibilities: i. To keep on living (you should be used to it by now) ii. To end it (it was your choice, after all) iii. To die (having met your obligations) Those are the only options. Reason for optimism.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.22
Post: Why Death Needs RebrandingW
“And for introducing me to Epictetus’s lectures – and loaning me his own copy.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.7
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“My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature – the wrong thing – the wrong way – or at the wrong time.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.20
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“That kindness is invincible, provided it’s sincere—not ironic or an act.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.18 IX
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“If they’ve injured you, then they’re the ones who suffer for it. But have they?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.38
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“Enter their minds, and you’ll find the judges you’re so afraid of – and how judiciously they judge themselves.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.18
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“Don’t pay attention to other people’s minds. Look straight ahead, where nature is leading you – nature in general, through the things that happen to you; and your own nature, through your own actions.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.55
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“And with that in mind I have no right, as a part, to complain about what is assigned me by the whole. Because what benefits the whole can’t harm the parts, and the whole does nothing that doesn’t benefit it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.6
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“The mind is that which is roused and directed by itself. It makes of itself what it chooses. It makes what it chooses of its own experience.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.8
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“Remember: you shouldn’t be surprised that a fig tree produces figs, not the world what it produces. A good doctor isn’t surprised when his patients have fevers, or a helmsman when the wind blows against him.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.15
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“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?”
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book 7.26
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“What injures the hive injures the bee.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.54
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Marcus Aurelius quote on how to live
“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.”
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book 7.56
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“When you start to lose your temper, remember: There’s nothing manly about rage. It’s courtesy and kindness that define a human being—and a man. That’s who possesses strength and nerves and guts, not the angry whiners. To react like that brings you closer to impassivity—and so to strength. Pain is the opposite of strength, and so is anger. Both are things we suffer from, and yield to.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.8 ix
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“Death. The end of sense-perception, of being controlled by our emotions, of mental activity, of enslavement to our bodies.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.28
Post: Death and Stoicism: A Peaceful Acceptance
“There is nothing bad in undergoing change – or good in emerging from it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.42
Post: Death and Stoicism: A Peaceful Acceptance
“The world’s cycles never change – up and down, from age to age. Either the world’s intelligence wills each thing (if so, accept its will), or it exercised that will once – once and for all – and all else follows as a consequence (and if so, why worry?). One way or another: atoms or unity. If it’s God, all is well. If it’s arbitrary, don’t imitate it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.28
Post: Death and Stoicism: A Peaceful Acceptance
“‘A little wisp of a soul carrying a corpse.’ – Epictetus”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.41
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“Before long, all existing things will be transformed, to rise like smoke (assuming all things become one), or be dispersed in fragments.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.4
Post: How to Find Our Nature: Entropy and Stoicism
“The world is maintained by change – in the elements and in the things they compose. That should be enough for you; treat it as an axiom.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.3
Post: How to Find Our Nature: Entropy and Stoicism
“Nature is pliable, obedient. And the Logos that governs it has no reason to do evil. It knows no evil, does none, and causes harm to nothing. It dictates all beginnings and all endings.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.1
Post: How to Find Our Nature: Entropy and Stoicism
“An ordered world or a mishmash. But still an order. Can there be order within you and not in everything else? In things so different, so dispersed, so intertwined?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.43
Post: How to Find Our Nature: Entropy and Stoicism
“Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.19
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“The way he handled the material comforts that fortune had supplied him in such abundance – without arrogance and without apology. If they were there, he took advantage of them. If not, he didn’t miss them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.16
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“If you don’t have a consistent goal in life, you can’t live it in a consistent way.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, book 11.21
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“That things have no hold on the soul. They stand there unmoving, outside it. Disturbance comes only from within – from our own perceptions.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.3 i
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“To see them from above: the thousands of animal herds, the rituals, the voyages on calm or stormy seas, the different ways we come into the world, share it with one another, and leave it. Consider the lives led once by others, long ago, the lives to be led by others after you, the lives led even now, in foreign lands. How many people don’t even know your name. How many will soon have forgotten it. How many offer you praise now – and tomorrow, perhaps, contempt. That to be remembered is worthless. Like fame. Like everything.”
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book 9.30
Post: Legacy: A Stoic View
“So many who were remembered already forgotten, and those who remembered them long gone.”
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book 7.6
Post: Legacy: A Stoic View, 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both. They were absorbed alike into the life force of the world, or dissolved alike into atoms.”
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book 6.24
Post: Legacy: A Stoic View
“Or is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all.”
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book 4.3
Post: Legacy: A Stoic View
“Like seeing roasted meat and other dishes in front of you and suddenly realizing. This is a dead fish. A dead bird. A dead pig. Or that this noble vintage is grape juice, and the purple robes are sheep wool dyed with shellfish blood.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.13
Post: How to Be a Stoic Minimalist
“Perceptions like that – latching onto things and piercing through them, so we see what they really are. That’s what we need to do all the time – all through our lives when things lay claim to our trust – to lay them bare and see how pointless they are, to strip away the legend that encrusts them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.13
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“Integrity and Maniless”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.2
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“Joy for humans lies in human actions. Human actions: Kindness to others, contempt for the senses, the interrogation of appearances, observation of nature and events in nature.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.26
Post: What is the Stoic Man?
A Key Lesson from Antoninus Pius
“Compassion.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.16
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“Her reverence for the divine, her generosity, her inability not only to do wrong but to even conceive of doing it. And the simple way she lived – not in the least like the rich.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.3
Post: What is the Stoic Man?
“Anywhere you can lead your life, you can lead a good one. – Lives are led at court… Then good ones can be.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.16
Post: What is the Stoic Man?
“His constant devotion to the empire’s needs. His stewardship of the treasury. His willingness to take responsibility – and blame – for both.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.16
Post: What is the Stoic Man?
“Doing your job without whining.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.15
Post: What is the Stoic Man?
“The recognition that I needed to train and discipline my character.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1.7
Post: What is the Stoic Man?
“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.16
Post: The Stoic Story of Raafia Ahmed, Top 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes, 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Stoic Discipline, 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes for Anxiety
“Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are composed harmoniously, and together they compose the world. One world, made up of all things. One divinity, present in them all. One substance and one law – the logos that all rational veins share. And one truth… If this is indeed the culmination of one process, beings who share the same birth, the same logos.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.9
Post: The Stoic Logos
“The world as a living being – one nature, one soul. Keep that in mind. And how everything feeds into that single experience, moves with a single motion. And how everything helps produce everything else. Spun and woven together.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.40
Post: The Stoic Logos, 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes for Anxiety
“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work – as a human being. … So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experience them? …. And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.1
Post: The Stoic Logos
How to Pray Like a Stoic
“Start praying like this and you’ll see: Not ‘some way to sleep with her’ – but a way to stop wanting to. Not ‘some way to get rid of him’ – but a way to stop trying. Not ‘some way to save my child’ – but a way to lose your fear. Redirect your prayers like that, and watch what happens.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.40
Post: How to Pray Like a Stoic
“Then isn’t it better to do what’s up to you – like a free man – than to be passively controlled by what isn’t, like a slave or a beggar?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.40
Post: How to Pray Like a Stoic
“Dig deep; the water – goodness – is down there. And as long as you keep digging, it will keep bubbling up.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.59
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“Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.5
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“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.11
Post: Top 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes, 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death, How to Practice Stoicism, How to Practice Memento Mori
“Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.10
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“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.1
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“External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.47
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“That every event is the right one. Look closely and you’ll see. Not just the right one overall, but right.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.10
Post: Top 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes, 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes for Anxiety
“It’s quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.67
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“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.20
Post: Top 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes, 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Stoic Discipline, How to Practice Stoicism
“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work – as a human being.’”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.1
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“You have to assemble your life yourself – action by action. And be satisfied if each one achieves its goal, as far as it can. No one can keep that from happening.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.32
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“If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.17
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Stoic Discipline
“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.2
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Stoic Discipline
“The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacles to our acting. purposes.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.20
Post: What is the Hegemonikon?
“You should meditate often on the connection of all things in the universe and their relationship to each other.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.38
Post: What is Sympatheia?
“If at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, prudence, self-control, courage—than a mind satisfied that it has succeeded in enabling you to act rationally, and satisfied to accept what’s beyond its control, if you find anything better than that, embrace it without reservations—it must be an extraordinary thing indeed; and enjoy it to the full.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.6
Post: Core Stoic Beliefs
“Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While you’re alive and able – be good.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.17
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“To pass through this brief life as nature demands. To give it up without complaint.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.48
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Don’t look down on death, but welcome it. It too is one of the things required by nature.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.3
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“What dying is – and that if you look at it in the abstract and break down your imaginary ideas of it by logical analysis, you realize that it’s nothing but a process of nature, which only children can be afraid of.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.12
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“If there were anything harmful on the other side of death, they would have made sure that the ability to avoid it was within you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.11
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“The condition of soul and body when death comes for us. – Shortness of life – Vastness of time before and after – Fragility of matter”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.7
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Death, the end of sense-perception, of being controlled by our emotions, of mental activity, of enslavement to our bodies.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.28
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Close to forgetting it all, close to being forgotten.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.21
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Soon you’ll be ashes, or bones. A mere name, at most – and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, and trivial.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.33
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“All that you see will soon have vanished, and those who see it vanish will vanish themselves, and the ones who reached old age have no advantage over the untimely dead.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.33
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Time is a river, a violent current of events, glimpsed once and already carried past us, and another follows and is gone.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.43
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Everything transitory – the knower and the known.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.35
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too… until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, gutters and goes out.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.19
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Not just because we move daily closer to death but also because our understanding – our grasp of the world – may be gone before we get there.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.1
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful – and hence neither good or bad.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.11
Post: 20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
“Nowhere you can go is more peaceful – more free of interruptions – than your own soul.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.3
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone
“People try to get away from it all – to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.3
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone, 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes for Anxiety
“The mind is the ruler of the soul. It should remain unstirred by agitations of the flesh – gentle and violent ones alike.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.26
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone
“Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.16
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone, What Is a Stoic Mindset?
“You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind – things that exist only there – and clear out space for yourself.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.32
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone
“There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.4
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone
“What am I doing with my soul? Interrogate yourself, to find out what inhabits your so-called mind and what kind of soul you have now.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.11
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone
“Go straight to the seat of intelligence – your own, the world’s, your neighbor’s. Your own – to ground it in justice. The world’s – to remind yourself what it is that you’re part of. Your neighbor’s – to distinguish ignorance from calculation. And recognize it like yours.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.22
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Being Alone
“Your ability to control your thoughts—treat it with respect. It’s all that protects your mind from false perceptions.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.9
Post: What is Prohairesis?
“At this moment, I have what common Nature wants me to have in this moment, and I’m doing what my own nature wants me to be doing at this moment.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.25
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Desire
“Do not give the circumstances the power to arouse anger or grief. Instead, control yourself deliberately, and let your desire direct itself only to what is within your power.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.47
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Desire
“Always define whatever it is we perceive – to trace its outline – so we can see what it really is: its substance. Stripped bare. As a whole. Unmodified. And to call it by its name – the thing itself and its components, to which it will eventually return.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.11
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Assent
“What I do? I attribute it to human beneficence. What is done to me? I accept it – and attribute it to the gods, and that source from which all things together flow.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.23
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Action
“He has dedicated himself to serving justice in all he does, and nature in all that happens.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.11a
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Action
“Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2.2
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Action
“In applying one’s whole soul to doing right and speaking the truth. There remains only the enjoyment of living a linked succession of good deeds, with not the slightest gap between them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.29
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Action
“‘If you seek tranquility, do less.’ Or (more accurately) do what’s essential – what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.24
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Action
“In applying one’s whole soul to doing right and speaking the truth. There remains only the enjoyment of living a linked succession of good deeds, with not the slightest gap between them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.29
Post: How to Practice the Stoic Discipline of Action
“Things have no hold on the soul. They have no access to it, cannot move or direct it. It is moved and directed by itself alone. It takes the things before it and interprets them as it sees fit.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5.19
Post: How to Practice the Dichotomy of Control
“You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind – things that exist only there – and clear out space for yourself: …by comprehending the scale of the world …by contemplating infinite time …by thinking of the speed with which things change – each part of every thing; the narrow space between our birth and death; the infinite time before, the equally unbounded time that follows.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.32
Post: How to Practice the Stoic View From Above
“If you want to talk about people, you need to look down on the earth from above. Herd, armies, farms; weddings, divorces, births, deaths; noisy courtrooms, desert places; all the foreign peoples; holidays, days of mourning, market days…all mixed together, a harmony of opposites.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.48
Post: How to Practice the Stoic View From Above
“If you’ve seen the present then you’ve seen everything – as it’s been since the beginning, as it will be forever. The same substance, the same form.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.37
Post: How to Practice the Stoic View From Above
“Continual awareness of all time and space, of the size and life span of the things around us. A grape seed in infinite space. A half twist of a corkscrew against eternity.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.17
Post: How to Practice the Stoic View From Above
“The world as a living being – one nature, one soul. Keep that in mind. And how everything feeds into that single experience, moves with a single motion.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.40
Post: What is Taxis?
“My city and state are Rome as Antoninus. But as a human being? The world.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.44
Post: The Stoic View on Immigration
“Willing acceptance – now, at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.6
Post: How to Practice Amor Fati
“He does only what is his to do, and considers constantly what the world has in store for him – doing his best, and trusting that all is for the best. For we carry our fate with us – and it carries us.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.4
Post: How to Practice Amor Fati
“To welcome with affection what is sent by fate.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.16
Post: How to Practice Amor Fati
“There are two reasons to embrace what happens. One is that it’s happening to you. It was prescribed for you, and it pertains to you. The thread was spun long ago, by the oldest cause of all. The other reason is that what happens to an individual is a cause of well-being in what directs the world—of its well-being, its fulfillment, of its very existence, even.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.8
Post: What Is a Stoic Mindset?
“Forget the future. When and if it comes, you’ll have the same resources to draw on – the same logos.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.8
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes for Anxiety
“You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape your decisions by themselves.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.52
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes for Anxiety
“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, Meditations, Book 10.29
Post: 10 Marcus Aurelius Quotes for Anxiety
“Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, ‘Why is this so unbearable?’ ‘Why can’t I endure it?’ You’ll be embarrassed to answer.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.36
Post: Stoicism For Overthinking
“You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.4
Post: Stoicism For Overthinking
“You need to get used to winnowing your thoughts, so that if someone says, ‘What are you thinking about?’ you can respond at once (and truthfully) that you are thinking this or that. And it would be obvious from your answer that your thoughts were straightforward and considerate ones.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3.4
Post: Stoicism For Overthinking
“Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole… Stick with the situation at hand.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8.36
Post: Stoicism For Overthinking
“Four habits of thought to watch for, and erase from your mind when you catch them. Tell yourself: – This thought is unnecessary. – This one is destructive to the people around you. – This one is insincere — not what you really think. – And the fourth: that the more divine part of you has been beaten and subdued by the degraded mortal part.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.19
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