Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE,) fully Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, born Marcus Annius Verus, was the Roman emperor 161–180. He was engaged for much of his rule with wars against Germanic tribes. By nature philosophical contemplative, Marcus is also known for his aphorisms and reflections based on a Stoic outlook in his Meditations.
Born into a prominent Roman family, Marcus was adopted in 138 by Emperor Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius (at Hadrian’s behest.) Marcus succeeded Antoninus as emperor in 161. During his reign, Rome faced troubles on the frontiers of the empire, and Marcus’s death is often considered the end of the golden age of the Roman Empire.
Marcus is well-known for the intimate notebook, Meditations that he wrote during the military campaigns of the last ten years of his life. According to scholars, Marcus may have turned to philosophy for mental stimulation while removed from the cultural and intellectual life of Rome.
The twelve books that comprise the Meditations are unorganized private reflections on life, death, personal conduct, and the cosmos, owe much to the Stoic philosophers Epictetus and Gaius Musonius Rufus, even though they were Marcus’s own thoughts.
Published unrevised only after Marcus’s death, Meditations were not very influential straightway. Later considered by many generations one of the greatest books of all times, Meditations are a substantial source of the modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Marcus Aurelius
All the transactions of the past differ very little from those of the present.
—Marcus Aurelius
To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Grief
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.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Beauty
Our understandings are always liable to error.—Nature and certainty are very hard to come at, and infallibility is mere vanity and pretence.
—Marcus Aurelius
Nothing is evil which is according to nature.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Evil
Where a man can live, he can also live well.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Enjoyment
It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.
—Marcus Aurelius
Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Selfishness, Self-interest
Opinion is the main thing which does good or harm in the world. It is our false opinions of things which ruin us.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Opinion, Opinions
Time is like a river of fleeting events, and its current is strong; as soon as something comes into sight, it is swept past us, and something else takes its place, and that too will be swept away.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Moving on, Patience, Resilience
A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Focus, Concentration
Give thy mind more to what thou has than to what thou hast not.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Possessions
Life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Fame
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Endurance
God overrules all mutinous accidents, brings them under his laws of fate, and makes them all serviceable to his purpose.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Fate
Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life—there, if one must speak out, the real man.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Confidence, Self-reliance, Persuasion
You will give yourself peace of mind if you perform every act of your life as if it were you last.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Action, Peace
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Foresight
This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Government
Let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Goodness
This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Perfectionism
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.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Power, Life, Action, Goodness
Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Appreciation, Blessings, Gratitude
He that is violent in the pursuit of pleasure will not mind turning villain for the purchase.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Pleasure
Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light or look the world in the face.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Principles, Crises
Snow endures but for a season, and joy comes with the morning.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Morning
To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: People
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Thinking, Thought, Happiness
A man should be upright, not be kept upright.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Integrity
Everything—a horse, a vine—is created for some duty…For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Vision, Purpose, Love
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Agreement, Harmony
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
Topics: Adversity
Let them know a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Aptness, Appropriateness
Dress not thy thoughts in too fine a raiment. And be not a man of superfluous words or superfluous deeds.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Money
Put it out of the power of truth to give you an ill character.—If anybody reports you not to be an honest man let your practice give him the lie.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Honesty
Perfection of character consists in this; living each day as if it were the last, and spending each moment in peace.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Character
Thou hast existed as a part; thou shalt disappear into that which produced thee. This, too, nature wills. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature and end thy journey in content, just as the olive falls when it is ripe, thanking the tree on which it grew and blessing the nature that gave it birth.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Nature
Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Dying, Death
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Worry, Stress, Suffering, Attitude, Perception, Power
A great estate is a great disadvantage to those who do not know how to use it, for nothing is more common than to see wealthy persons live scandalously and miserably; riches do them no service in order to virtue and happiness; it is precept and principle, not an estate, that makes a man good for something.
—Marcus Aurelius
Topics: Riches
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