Marcusaurelius Quotes

“To grieve or be angry about or fear what happens to you is to be a fugitive from the law of nature.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“That way you'll see human life for what it is. Smoke. Nothing. Especially when you recall that once things alter they cease to exist through all the endless years to come. Then why such turmoil?”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Studying philosophy instills modesty and straightforwardness in your character.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Each of us lives only now, in this brief instant. The rest of our life has been lived already, or is impossible to see because it lies in the unknowable future.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“He urges himself to strengthen his virtues now, without any further delay. This is what he means when he commands himself to limit himself to the present. Worrying about the future and regretting the past badly interfere with focussing on being virtuous in the present. He writes that if he can cut free of distracting imprassions that cling to his mind and can free his mind from the future and the past, then he can make himself, as Empedocles says, "a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness.”
― William O. Stephens, Marcus Aurelius: A Guide for the Perplexed