“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Marcus Aurelius:
400
quotes
145
likes
Marcus Aurelius Quotes
“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”
Source: Meditations
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life”
Variant: How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.
Source: Meditations
“You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.”
Ὅτι οὐδὲν ἧττον τὰ αὐτὰ ποιήσουσι, κἂν σὺ διαρραγῇς.
VIII, 4
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X, 18
Variant translation: If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance.
VI, 21
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
V.20
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book V
Context: In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them. But when they obstruct our proper tasks, they become irrelevant to us--like sun, wind, and animals. Our actions may be impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. (Hays translation)
IV, 20
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
“A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.”
Source: Meditations
Source: Meditations
“What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.”
Source: Meditations
VII, 61
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“No man is happy who does not think himself so.”
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
Source: Meditations
Source: Meditations
Hays translation
The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
V, 16
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book V
VI, 28
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI
“A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.”
Ἀδικεῖ πολλάκις ὁ μὴ ποιῶν τι, οὐ μόνον ὁ ποιῶν τι.
IX, 5
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX
“Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.”
VI, 3
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI
“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them. (Long translation)”
All men are made one for another: either then teach them better, or bear with them. (trans. Meric Casaubon).
Οἱ ἄνθρωποι γεγόνασιν ἀλλήλων ἕνεκεν· ἢ δίδασκε οὖν ἢ φέρε.
VIII, 59
Variant: Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX, 16
“Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.”
Source: The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage
