Marcus Aurelius on Discipline Quotes

"Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice."

"Stick to what's in front of you—idea, action, utterance."

"To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing – here is the perfection of character."

"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."

"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."

"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury."

"Another may be more expert in casting [throwing] his opponent; but he is not more social, nor more modest, nor better disciplined to meet all that happens, nor more considerate with respect to the faults of his neighbors. VII, 52"

"The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Trust only in your own character."

"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."

"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."

"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."

"Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions."

"Objective judgment, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance—now, at this very moment—of all external events. That’s all you need."

"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."

"To continue to be the same man as you have been up to now... is to be senseless."

"A man should stand erect, not be kept erect by others."

"A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions."

"Confine yourself to the present."

"Don’t be overheard complaining… Not even to yourself."

"Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig."

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

"From Rusticus I received the impression that my character required improvement and discipline."

"Receive without conceit, release without struggle."

"Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts."

"To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference."

"If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it."

"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."

"I have to thank the gods that I wasn't brought up at my grandfather's concubine's, that I preserved the flower of my youth, and that I didn't prove my virility before the proper time."

"Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself."

"Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been."

"It is the duty of a man to be the helper of all men, and to look upon the whole human race as one city."

"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work—as a human being.'"

"Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshiper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper work."