Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aureliuswas Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. Marcus Aurelius was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors. He was a practitioner of Stoicism, and his untitled writing, commonly known as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, is the most significant source of our modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 April 121
CityRome, Italy
wish poverty poor
Cinna wishes to seem poor, and is poor
grief men joy
To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief
fate play fleeting
Remember: Matter: how tiny your share of it. Time: how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate: how small a role you play in it.
atheism looks purpose
From Apollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason.
together world holy
Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are composed harmoniously, and together - they compose the world.
moving thinking soul
Things themselves cannot touch the soul, not in the least degree, nor have they admission to the soul nor can they turn or move the soul: it turns and moves itself alone and whatever judgment it may think proper to make, such it makes by remaking for itself the things that present themselves to it
benefits bees doe
What does not benefit the hive is no benefit to the bee.
motivation men worry
I am an old man and have had many worries, but most have never come to pass.
gratitude whole universe
The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it - either gratefully better than or bitterly worse than something else that you alone choose.
retirement space soul
Are you distracted by outward cares? Then allow yourself a space of quiet wherein you can add to your knowledge of the Good and learn to curb your restlessness. Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself.
age lapses literature
As for literature, thefts cannot harm it, while the lapse of ages augments its value
reading writing men
He does not write at all whose poems no man reads
life past space
Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
life vex may
Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.