Marcus Aurelius on Overcoming Obstacles Quotes

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

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

"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."

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

"Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest."

"Does what's happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness, and all other qualities that allow a person's nature to fulfill itself?"

"Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."

"The mind that is free from passion is a very citadel, for a man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable."

"Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature?"

"If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now."

"Everything that happens is as simple and familiar as the rose in spring, the fruit in summer. Such are disease, death, calumny, treachery, and all the things which delight fools or vex them."

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

"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."

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

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

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul."

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

"The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time."

"Suppose that men kill thee, cut thee in pieces, curse thee. What then can these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure, wise, sober, and just?"

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

"Our actions may be impeded... but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting."

"Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also."

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

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

"No man is happy who does not think himself so."

"Whatever anyone does or says, I must be good, just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this: whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color."

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

"Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly."

"Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go."

"A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There are briars in the road. Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, 'And why were such things made in the world?'"

"When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly... None of them can hurt me."

"Keep a good heart. That also is a part of nature."

"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."