Quotes

ID Title Subtitle Content Category Views Likes Dislikes
151

If...it be a thing external that causes thy grief, know, that it is not that properly that doth cause it, but thine own conceit and opinion concerning the thing: which thou mayest rid thyself of, when thou wilt.

Marcus Aurelius 6 4 0
152

The mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable. He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man: but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy.

Marcus Aurelius 7 6 0
153

The universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything which is within her which appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter, and her own art.

Marcus Aurelius 5 3 0
154

No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No imprecision in your thoughts.

Marcus Aurelius 7 5 0
155

Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.

Marcus Aurelius 7 7 0
156

A man standing by a spring of clear, sweet water and cursing it. While the fresh water keeps on bubbling up. He can shovel mud into it, or dung, and the stream will carry it away, wash itself clean, remain unstained.

Marcus Aurelius 6 3 0
157

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, just? For instance, if a man should stand by a limpid pure spring, and curse it, the spring never ceases sending up potable water; and if he should cast clay into it or filth, it will speedily disperse them and wash them out, and will not be at all polluted. How then shalt thou possess a perpetual fountain? By forming thyself hourly to freedom conjoined with contentment, simplicity and modesty.

Marcus Aurelius 6 3 0
158

He who does not know what the world is, does not know where he is. And he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is. But he who has failed in any one of these things could not even say for what purpose he exists himself. What then dost thou think of him who [avoids or] seeks the praise of those who applaud, of men who know not either where they are or who they are?

Marcus Aurelius 10 2 1
159

He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.

Marcus Aurelius 5 3 0
160

You want praise from people who kick themselves every fifteen minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves.

Marcus Aurelius 5 4 0
161

No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with the intelligence which embraces all things. For the intelligent power is no less diffused in all parts and pervades all things for him who is willing to draw it to him than the aërial power for him who is able to respire it.

Marcus Aurelius 4 1 0
162

He who fears death either fears to lose all sensation or fears new sensations. In reality, you will either feel nothing at all, and therefore nothing evil, or else, if you can feel any sensations, you will be a new creature, and so will not have ceased to have life.

Marcus Aurelius 3 3 0
163

Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.

Marcus Aurelius 4 4 0
164

All men are made one for another: either then teach them better, or bear with them. (trans. Meric Casaubon).

Marcus Aurelius 8 7 0
165

An arrow has one motion and the mind another. Even when pausing, even when weighing conclusions, the mind is moving forward, toward its goal.

Marcus Aurelius 5 2 0
166

The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.

Marcus Aurelius 8 4 0
167

He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.

Marcus Aurelius 6 3 1
168

Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

Marcus Aurelius 7 5 0
169

A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.

Marcus Aurelius 8 9 0
170

Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.

Marcus Aurelius 5 2 0
171

Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.

Marcus Aurelius 3 0 0
172

All things are the same,—familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.

Marcus Aurelius 10 3 0
173

The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.

Marcus Aurelius 5 4 0
174

All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.

Marcus Aurelius 8 0 0
175

Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear?

Marcus Aurelius 10 8 0