Quotes from Marcus Aurelius

That all is as thinking makes it so — and you control your thinking. So remove your judgements whenever you wish and then there is calm - as the sailor rounding the cape finds smooth water and the welcome of a waveless bay.

Do the things external which fall upon thee distract thee? Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.

Does the emerald lose its beauty for lack of admiration?

Whether you are shivering with cold or too hot, sleepy or wide awake, spoken well of or badly, dying, or doing anything else, do not let it interfere with doing what is right. For whatever causes us to die is also one of life's processes. Even for this, nothing is required of us than to accomplish well the task at hand.

Within ten days you will seem a god to those to whom you are now a beast and an ape, if you will return to your principles and the worship of reason.

Meditate upon what you ought to be in body and soul when death overtakes you; meditate on the brevity of life, and the measureless gulf of eternity behind it and before, and upon the frailty of everything material.

No matter how good a life you lead, you won't please everyone. Someone will be glad to see you go.

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

Swiftly the remembrance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity.

Everything of the body is a river. Everything of the soul is dream and vapour. Life is war and the abode of a stranger. The only fame after death is oblivion.

You have the power within you to endure anything, for your mere opinion can render it tolerable, perhaps even acceptable, by regarding it as an opportunity for enlightenment or a matter of duty.

There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won't hail the occasion with delight.