50+ Marcus Aurelius 'Meditations' Excerpts

You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

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

If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

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

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

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

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

You can commit injustice by doing nothing.

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

Don’t go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.

Look well into yourself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if you will always look.

Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.

It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Confine yourself to the present.

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.

Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess.

A person’s worth is measured by the worth of what they value.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds and examine their pursuits.

The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature's delight.

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.

Be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.

Each day provides its own gifts.

Whatever time you choose is the right time. Not late, not early.

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding yourself in the ranks of the insane.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its habitual thoughts.

The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.

Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.

Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place.