Quotations from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations – Wisdom for Life and Contemplation

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

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

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

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.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

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

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.

Your task is to be a good human being; surviving is just a bonus.

The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.

The present moment is all any of us have. Make the most of it.

The obstacle is the way.

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

The world is changeable, and its essence remains the same.

Focusing on what you can control frees you from the tyranny of what you can’t.

Honor your thoughts, but don’t let them control you.

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

The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

Quotations from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations – Wisdom for Life and Contemplation part 2

A man’s worth is measured by his character, not by his possessions.

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.

What stands in the way becomes the way.

Wear your achievements lightly, and your disappointments even lighter.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed.

The past is dust; the present moment is where life is lived.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

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

Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.

What we do now echoes in eternity.

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.

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look at things in the face and know them for what they are.

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

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

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.

Death smiles at us all; all a man can do is smile back.

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

It is not events that disturb people; it is their judgments concerning them.

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

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.