Marcus Aurelius: Man

Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Ancient Rome. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Marcus Aurelius: 800 quotes151 likes

“Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII, 3

“Nature has had regard in everything no less to the end than to the beginning and the continuance, just like a man who throws up a ball. What good is it then for the ball to be thrown up, or harm for it to come down… what good is it to the bubble while it holds together, or what harm when it is burst?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VIII, 20
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VIII, 26
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VII, 18
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

“He was a man who looked at what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man's acts.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

I, 16
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book I

“The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

II, 14
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book II

“Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man - yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

IV, 48
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

“Live as on a mountain. …Let men see, let them know a real man who lives according to nature. If they cannot endure him, let them kill him. For that is better than to live thus.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

X, 15
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X

“The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

III, 4
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book III

“For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his? So remember these two points: first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

II, 14
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book II

“A man should be upright, not kept upright.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

III, 5
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book III

“From Apollonius, true liberty, and unvariable steadfastness, and not to regard anything at all, though never so little, but right and reason: and always..that it was possible for the same man to be both vehement and remiss: a man not subject to be vexed, and offended with the incapacity of his scholars and auditors in his lectures and expositions.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

I, 5
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book I

“Leaves, some the wind scatters on the ground—So is the race of man.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Leaves, also, are thy children; and leaves, too, are they who cry out so if they are worthy of credit, or bestow their praise, or on the contrary curse, or secretly blame and sneer; and leaves, in like manner, are those who shall receive and transmit a man's fame to after-times. For all such things as these "are produced in the season of spring," as the poet says; then the wind casts them down; then the forest produces other leaves in their places. But a brief existence is common to all things, and yet thou avoidest and pursuest all things as if they would be eternal.
X, 34
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X

“Suppose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural unity… yet here there is this beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut asunder, to come together again. …he has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be separated at all from the universal …he has allowed him to be returned and to be united and to resume his place as a part.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VIII, 34
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“When a bunch of known corrupt people unite against one man and spare no effort to ridicule him, blackmail him and attempt to assassinate his character, blindly follow that one man!”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

I, 17
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book I

“Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life,—there, if one must speak out, the real man.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book X, 38

“In the case of all things which have a certain constitution, whatever harm may happen to any of them, that which is affected becomes consequently worse; but in like case, a man becomes both better... and more worthy of praise, by making the right use of these accidents.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book X, 33

“To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book X, 14

“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 book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VIII, 48

“The things... which are proper to the understanding no other man is used to impede, for neither fire, nor iron, nor tyrant, nor abuse, touches it in any way. When it has been made a sphere, it continues a sphere.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VIII, 41