Marcus Aurelius Quotes - Meditations

"It is the definitive text on self-discipline, personal ethics, humility, self-actualization and strength." - Ryan Holiday

Just under 2000 years ago, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius recorded private notes to himself about the things that he saw and learned from daily life. These 'meditations' would change the way thousands of people live for the better.

Whether you are new to Stoicism or have been practising the philosophy for a while, whether you are young or old, married or divorced, Meditations contains life-changing wisdom for any human-being.

If you haven't read the full book already, it is highly recommended that you do so. If you want a collection of the best Marcus Aurelius quotes in Meditations, you've come to the right place... 

Marcus Aurelius Quotes Meditations

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”

“When you’ve done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top— credit for the good deed or a favor in return?”

“Is any man afraid of change? What can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? And canst thou be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change?”

"You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think."

“Discard your misperceptions. Stop being jerked like a puppet. Limit yourself to the present.”

"That which is not good for the hive is not good for the bee either."

"A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something."

"To love only what happens. What was destined. No greater harmony."

"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too - ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth."

"People try to get away from it all - to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful - more free of interruptions - than your own soul."

"Indifference to external events. And a commitment to justice in your own acts."

"Mastery of reading and writing requires a Master. Still more so life."

"The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts."

"Choose not to be harmed - and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed, and you haven't been."

"External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now."

"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."

"Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see."

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." 

"Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life."