Marcus Aurelius

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

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

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

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

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.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

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

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

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

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 object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.