MARCUS AURELIUS -- 20 quotes from MEDITATIONS.
(All are signed, so feel free to share one or more.)
Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and
poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither
noble nor shameful—and hence neither good nor bad. -Marcus Aurelius
What is divine deserves our respect because it is good; what is human
deserves our affection because it is like us. - Marcus Aurelius
Even if you’re going to live three thousand more years, or ten times
that, remember: you cannot lose another life than the one you’re living
now, or live another one than the one you’re losing. -Marcus Aurelius
The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully
and rightly. And be patient with those who don't. -Marcus Aurelius
If it doesn’t hurt the individual elements to change continually into
one another, why are people afraid of all of them changing and
separating? It’s a natural thing. And nothing natural is evil. -Marcus
Aurelius
Concentrate on this, your whole life long: for your mind
to be in the right state—the state a rational, civic mind should be in.
- Marcus Aurelius
Forget everything else. Keep hold of this
alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant.
The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see. -Marcus
Aurelius
Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy,
for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand
heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing,
remember the chain that links them. - Marcus Aurelius
Is it your reputation
that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The
abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of all those
applauding hands. -Marcus Aurelius
Things have no hold on the
soul. They stand there unmoving, outside it. Disturbance comes only from
within—from our own perceptions. - Marcus Aurelius
Not to live
as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While
you’re alive and able—be good. - Marcus Aurelius
And then you
might see what the life of the good man is like—someone content with
what nature assigns him, and satisfied with being just and kind himself.
-Marcus Aurelius
Note: If you're enjoying these quotes so far,
then you should definitely check out The Meditations, which is where
these quotes are pulled from.
When we describe things as “taking
place,” we’re talking like builders, who say that blocks in a wall or a
pyramid “take their place” in the structure, and fit together in a
harmonious pattern. - Marcus Aurelius
If we limited “good” and
“bad” to our own actions, we’d have no call to challenge God, or to
treat other people as enemies. - Marcus Aurelius
To pass through
this brief life as nature demands. To give it up without complaint. Like
an olive that ripens and falls. Praising its mother, thanking the tree
it grew on. -Marcus Aurelius
The whole is damaged if you cut away
anything—anything at all—from its continuity and its coherence. Not
only its parts, but its purposes. And that’s what you’re doing when you
complain: hacking and destroying. -Marcus Aurelius
“To live with
the gods.” And to do that is to show them that your soul accepts what it
is given and does what the spirit requires—the spirit God gave each of
us to lead and guide us, a fragment of himself. -Marcus Aurelius
Awaken; return to yourself. Now, no longer asleep, knowing they were
only dreams, clear-headed again, treat everything around you as a dream.
-Marcus Aurelius
It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve
remained unharmed by it—not shattered by the present or frightened of
the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could
have remained unharmed by it. -Marcus Aurelius
To be like the
rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging
of the sea falls still around it. -Marcus Aurelius
Take the
shortest route, the one that nature planned—to speak and act in the
healthiest way. Do that, and be free of pain and stress, free of all
calculation and pretension. -Marcus Aurelius
How does it injure
you anyway? You’ll find that none of the people you’re upset about has
done anything that could do damage to your mind. But that’s all that
“harm” or “injury” could mean. -Marcus Aurelius
It’s time you
realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous
than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.
-Marcus Aurelius
If it isn’t ceasing to live that you’re afraid
of but never beginning to live properly . . . then you’ll be worthy of
the world that made you. No longer an alien in your own land. No longer
shocked by everyday events—as if they were unheard-of aberrations.
-Marcus Aurelius
Because to be drawn toward what is wrong and
self-indulgent, toward anger and fear and pain, is to revolt against
nature. And for the mind to complain about anything that happens is to
desert its post. -Marcus Aurelius
The idea for this school came to me as a sudden inspiration, as if a light flashed into my mind. I was filled with joy and enthusiasm. I was surprised because I wasn't thinking about writing anything ‘spiritual’ at all, and the idea of having an email school had never occurred to me. Just the opposite. 
