Marco Aurélio

It is not the weight of the future or the past that is pressing upon you, but ever that of the present alone. Even this burden, too, can be lessened if you confine it strictly to its own limits.

The passing minute is every man’s equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours.

I often marvel how it is that though each man loves himself beyond all else, he should yet value his own opinion of himself less than that of others.

The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.

A man’s happiness,—to do the things proper to man.

Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.

Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body still perseveres.

When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself, and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.

Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity. All things are petty, easily changed, vanishing away.

Here is a sort of river of things passing into being, and time is a violent torrent; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

“What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only one, philosophy.”

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

“Mastery of reading and writing requires a master. Still more so life.”

“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.”

“If you don’t have consistent goal in life, you can’t live it in a consistent way.”

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

“And you can also commit injustice by doing nothing.”

“People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time-even when hard at work.”

“Confine yourself to the present.”

“The first step: Don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all.”

“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.’”

“Nothing is needed by fools, for they do not understand how to use anything, but are in want of everything.”

“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.”

“Be indifferent to what makes no difference.”

“Pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments.”

“The problem creates the solution. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

“What we do now echoes in eternity.”

“If a friend feels upset by you, be the first to try to put things right.”

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.”

“The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think or do. Only what you do.”

“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.”

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.”

“All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it.”