Marcus Aurelius

Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.

Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou art in the habit of longing for those. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men; for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself.

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

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

Time is a violent torrent; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

How soon wilt thou forget all things! How soon will all things forget thee!

My city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome; but so far as I am a man, it is the world.

Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not thy thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which thou mayest expect to befall thee: but on every occasion ask thyself, What is there in this that is intolerable and past bearing?

Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly — I can neither receive injury from any of...

The Meditations were never meant to be published. I wrote them in Greek — not Latin, which was unusual for a Roman emperor — during military campaigns on the Danube frontier. The German tribes were pressing and I was pressing back, and in the evenings I wrote reminders to myself about how to behave.

Do not waste what remains of your life in thoughts about...