Marcus Aurelius Quotes

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

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

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?'

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, 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.

I may not have time to read all the books in the world or to learn all the knowledge that there is, but I have time to forgive an injustice. I have time to help my fellow human being, I have time to do something good today.

By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.

Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.

Mankind have been created for the sake of one another. Either instruct them, therefore, or endure them.

To change your mind and to follow him who sets you right is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.

Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity.

Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.

Everything is fitting for me, my universe, which fits thy purpose. Nothing in its good time is too early or too late for me; everything is fruit for me which thy seasons, Nature, bear; from thee, in thee, to thee, are all things.