Marcus Aurelius

• "How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.“
• "Anger cannot be dishonest.“
• "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.“
• "When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.“
• "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.“
• "The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.“
• "To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.“
• "Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.“
• "Be content with what you are, and wish not change nor dread your last day, nor long for it.“
• "Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.“
• "The universe is change our life is what our thoughts make it.“
• "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.“
• "Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.“
• "Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.“
• "Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.“
• "Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.“
• "Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.“
• "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.“
• "Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.“
• "Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.“
• "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.'“
• "Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.“
• "Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.“
• "Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.“
• "We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.“
• "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.'“
• "Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.“
• "That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.“
• "Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late the good lived yesterday.“
• "You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.“
• "Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.“
• "A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.“
• "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.“
• "Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.“
• "Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.“
• "Our life is what our thoughts make it.“
• "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.“
• "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.“
• "Very little is needed to make a happy life it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.“
• "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.“
• "Do every act of your life as if it were your last.“
• "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.“
• "Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.“
• "Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.“
• "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.“
• "Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.“
• "Men exist for the sake of one another.“
• "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.“
• "The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.“
• "That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.“
• "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.“
• "Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.“
• "Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.“
• "Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.“
• "Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.“
• "Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.“
• "Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.“
• "You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.“
• "Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.“
• "To live happily is an inward power of the soul.“
• "There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.“
• "Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.“
• "Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.“
• "You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.“
• "Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.“
• "Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.“
• "Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.“
• "How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.“
• "Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current 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.“
• "You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.“
• "Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.“
• "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.“
• "Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.“

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