Marcus Aurelius on Stoicism Quotes

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

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

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

"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing."

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

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

"The soul is dyed by the color of its thoughts."

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

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

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

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

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

"He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe."

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"Receive without pride, let go without attachment."

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

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

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

"Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so."

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

"Receive without conceit, release without struggle."

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

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

"Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good."

"Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish."