Marcus Aurelius Quotes

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Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.

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The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.

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

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The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

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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.

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A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

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The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.

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Fame in a world like this is worthless.

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It is not death that a man should fear, but rather he should fear never beginning to live.

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Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.

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Everything – a horse, a vine – is created for some duty… For what task, then, were you yourself created?

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The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

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Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.

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Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.

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Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered

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A good man does not spy around for the black spots in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.

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Life is opinion.

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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.

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Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

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Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.

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How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.

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It is man’s peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.

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No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor does one live any other life than that which he will lose.

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We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.

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All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle.

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Does the emerald lose its beauty for lack of admiration?

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I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.

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Live every day as if they last.

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Receive without conceit, release without struggle.

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Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

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Failure to read what is happening in another’s soul is not easily seen as a cause of unhappiness: but those who fail to attend the motions of their own soul are necessarily unhappy.

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In everything that you do, pause and ask yourself if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives you of this

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Neither worse than or better is a thing made by being praised.

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That to expect bad people not to injure others is crazy. It’s to ask the impossible. And to let them behave like that to other people but expect them to exempt you is arrogant–the act of a tyrant.

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Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.

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You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

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A person’s worth is measured by the worth of what he values.

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Disgraceful: for the soul to give up when the body is still going strong.

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How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

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It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

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Not to waste time on nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it. Not to be obsessed with quail-fighting or other crazes like that.

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The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.

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We must make haste, then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.

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