Marc Aurèle citations (412 citations, Page 12)

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.
IX, 29
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX

“How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!”

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VII, 6
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

“Nothing happens to anyone that he can't endure. (Hays translation)”

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Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
Οὐδὲν οὐδενὶ συμβαίνει ὃ οὐχὶ ἐκεῖνο πέφυκε φέρειν.
V, 18
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book V

“Live with the gods.”

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V, 27
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book V

“What means all this?”

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III, 3
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book III

“Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion... I have learned both shamefastness and manlike behaviour. Of my mother I have learned to be religious, and bountiful; and to forbear, not only to do, but to intend any evil; to content myself with a spare diet, and to fly all such excess as is incidental to great wealth.”

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I, 1
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book I

“From Apollonius, true liberty, and unvariable steadfastness, and not to regard anything at all, though never so little, but right and reason: and always..that it was possible for the same man to be both vehement and remiss: a man not subject to be vexed, and offended with the incapacity of his scholars and auditors in his lectures and expositions.”

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I, 5
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book I

“Whensoever by some present hard occurrences thou art constrained to be in some sort troubled and vexed, return unto thyself as soon as may be, and be not out of tune longer than thou must needs. For so shalt thou be the better able to keep thy part another time, and to maintain the harmony, if thou dost use thyself to this continually; once out, presently to have recourse unto it, and to begin again.”

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VI, 9
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI

“An angry countenance is much against nature, and it is oftentimes the proper countenance of them that are at the point of death. But were it so, that all anger and passion were so thoroughly quenched in thee, that it were altogether impossible to kindle it any more, yet herein must not thou rest satisfied, but further endeavour by good consequence of true ratiocination, perfectly to conceive and understand, that all anger and passion is against reason.”

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VII, 18
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

“Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power. Take away then, when thou choosest, thy opinion, and like a mariner, who has doubled the promontory, thou wilt find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay.”

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Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XII, 22

“Leaves, some the wind scatters on the ground—So is the race of man.”

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Leaves, also, are thy children; and leaves, too, are they who cry out so if they are worthy of credit, or bestow their praise, or on the contrary curse, or secretly blame and sneer; and leaves, in like manner, are those who shall receive and transmit a man's fame to after-times. For all such things as these "are produced in the season of spring," as the poet says; then the wind casts them down; then the forest produces other leaves in their places. But a brief existence is common to all things, and yet thou avoidest and pursuest all things as if they would be eternal.
X, 34
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X

“You want praise from people who kick themselves every fifteen minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves.”

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Is it a sign of self-respect to regret nearly everything you do?
Hays translation
VIII, 53
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“Suppose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural unity… yet here there is this beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut asunder, to come together again. …he has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be separated at all from the universal …he has allowed him to be returned and to be united and to resume his place as a part.”

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VIII, 34
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“Why then dost thou choose to act in the same way? and why dost thou not leave these agitations which are foreign to nature, to those who cause them and those who are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether intent upon the right way of making use of things which happen to thee?”

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for then thou wilt use them well, and they will be material for thee. Only attend to thyself, and resolve to be a good man in every act which thou doest; and remember...
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII, 58

“Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of the things which thou hast, select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however, take care that thou dost not, through being so pleased with them, accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou shouldst not have them.”

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Variant Translation: Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou hast already.
VII, 27
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

“When a bunch of known corrupt people unite against one man and spare no effort to ridicule him, blackmail him and attempt to assassinate his character, blindly follow that one man!”

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I, 17
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book I

“Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.”

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