Marcus Aurelius on Mindfulness Quotes

"Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought."

"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 no act be done without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to the perfect principles of art."

"Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew."

"The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions of a common underlying principle."

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

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

"If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it."

"You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind—things that exist only there—and clear out space for yourself."

"Treat what you don't have as nonexistent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you'd crave them if you didn't have them."

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

"Confine yourself to the present."

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

"Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside."

"Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life."

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

"Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it."

"Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbors. Anything that distracts you from fidelity to the ruler within you means a loss of opportunity."

"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."

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

"Dig within. There lies the fount of good; a fount whose waters will ever bubble up, if you but dig deep enough."

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

"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."

"The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like that."

"Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already."

"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."

"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."

"Justice is the source of all the other virtues."

"Life is neither good nor evil, but only a place for good and evil."

"Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears."

"Do not be disturbed. Uncomplicate yourself."

"Always define whatever it is we perceive—to trace its outline—so we can see what it really is: its substance. Stripped bare. As a whole. Unmodified."

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."