Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.

Very little is needed to make a happy life.

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.

The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.

Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.

A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not always he that has done something.

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.

Look beneath the surface let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.

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

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

This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.

If it is not seemly, do it not if it is not true, speak it not.

All is ephemeral,--fame and the famous as well.

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

The universe is change our life is what our thoughts make it.

Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.

Whatever happens it all happens as it should thou wilt find this true, if thou shouldst watch closely.

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.

Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live death is nigh at hand while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.

'Let thine occupations be few,' saith the sage, 'if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life.'

No form of Nature is inferior to Art for the arts merely imitate natural forms.

Remember this-that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.

Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within there lies the power to persuade, there the life,--there, if one must speak out, the real man.

As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.

Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.

As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land but the fame that comes after is oblivion.

Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.

Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.

Nothing happens to any thing which that thing is not made by nature to bear.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

In the morning, when you are sluggish about getting up, let this thought be present 'I am rising to a man's work.'

It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.

Look well into thyself there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.

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.

Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself

You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.

Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

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.