Quotes from book
Meditations

Name: Meditations
Author: Marcus Aurelius

Marcus AureliusOriginal title Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτὸν

Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy.

“In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; “I am rising to a man’s work.””

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Meditations. v. 1.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VIII, 2
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“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

“You want praise from people who kick themselves every fifteen minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves. (Is it a sign of self-respect to regret nearly everything you do?) (Hays translation)”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII, 53

“All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XII, 1

“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 book Meditations

VIII, 45
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“Let no act be done at haphazard, nor otherwise than according to the finished rules that govern its kind.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

IV, 2
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

“We are all made for mutual assistance, as the feet, the hands, and the eyelids, as the rows of the upper and under teeth, from whence it follows that clashing and opposition is perfectly unnatural.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

II, 1
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book II

“What is divine is full of Providence. Even chance is not divorced from nature, from the inweaving and enfolding of things governed by Providence. Everything proceeds from it.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Hays translation
All that is from the gods is full of Providence.
II, 3
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book II

“Thou sufferest justly: for thou choosest rather to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VIII, 22
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

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

“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

“All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

IV, 44
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

“For thus it is, men of Athens, in truth: wherever a man has placed himself thinking it is the best place for him, or has been placed by a commander, there in my opinion he ought to stay and to abide the hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or anything else, before the baseness”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

of deserting his post
VII, 45
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

“Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Alternate Translation: Whatever may befall you, it was preordained for you from everlasting.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X, 5

“As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

III, 13
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book III