Marcus Aurelius: Quotes about life

Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Ancient Rome. Explore interesting quotes on life.

Marcus Aurelius: 800 quotes151 likes

“No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor does one live any other life than that which he will lose.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

Marcus Aurelius

No printed sources exist for this prior to 2009, and this seems to have been an attribution which arose on the internet, as indicated by web searches and rationales provided at "Marcus Aurelius and source checking" at Three Shouts on a Hilltop (14 June 2011) http://threeshoutsonahilltop.blogspot.com/2011/06/marcus-aurelius-and-source-checking.html <br class="br">This quote may be a paraphrase of Meditations, Book II: <br class="br">Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.<br>But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil;<br>but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence?<br>But Gods there are, undoubtedly, and they regard human affairs; and have put it wholly in our power, that we should not fall into what is truly evil <br class="br">Misattributed

“Remember this— that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

IV, 32
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV, 8

“Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

τί λοιπὸν ἢ ἀπολαύειν τοῦ ζῆν συνάπτοντα ἄλλο ἐπ ἄλλῳ ἀγαθόν, ὥστε μηδὲ τὸ βραχύτατον διάστημα ἀπολείπειν;
XII, 29
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XII

“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 book Meditations

VIII, 58
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“Remember that the term Rational was intended to signify a discriminating attention to every several thing and freedom from negligence; and that Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of things which are assigned to thee by the common nature; and the Magnanimity is the elevation of the intelligent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations of the flesh, and above that poor thing called fame, and death, and all such things. If then, thou maintainest thyself in the possession of these names, without desiring to be called by these names by others, thou wilt be another person and wilt enter into another life.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

X, 8
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X

“Let your occupations be few," says the sage, "if you would lead a tranquil life.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Ὀλίγα πρῆσσε, φησίν, εἰ μέλλεις εὐθυμήσειν
IV, 24
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

“As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

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

“Take heed not to be transformed into a Caesar, not to be dipped in the purple dye, for it does happen. Keep yourself therefore, simple, good, pure, grave, unaffected, the friend of justice, religious, kind, affectionate, strong for your proper work. Wrestle to be the man philosophy wished to make you. Reverence the gods, save men. Life is brief; there is but one harvest of earthly existence, a holy disposition and neighborly acts.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VI, 30
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI

“Yes, you can--if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Hays translation
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book II, 5

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

III, 11
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book III

“Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

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

“Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VI, 30
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI

“About fame… Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

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

“Though thou be destined to live three thousand years and as many myriads besides, yet remember that no man loseth other life than that which he liveth, nor liveth other than that which he loseth.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

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

“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 book Meditations

IX, 21
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX

“You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that's all even the gods can ask of you.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Hays translation
Thou seest how few be the things, the which if a man has at his command his life flows gently on and is divine.
II, 5
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book II

“Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

IV, 50
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

“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