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
peace humanity easy
How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil.
change decay common
There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.
passing-away existence non-existence
Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.
morning snow joy
Snow endures but for a season, and joy comes with the morning.
night life-is stranger
Life is a stranger's sojourn, a night at an inn.
meditation emeralds doe
Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.
pain evil sin
It is a sin to persue pleasure as a good and to avoid pain as a evil.
people purpose impulse
People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time-even when hard at work.
imagination crushed whole
Don't let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.
men soul fame
In man's life, time is but a moment; being, a flux; sense is dim; the material frame corruptible; soul, an eddy of breath; fortune a thing inscrutable, and fame precarious.
fire lamps use
The inner master, when confronted with an obstacle, uses it as fuel, like a fire which consumes things that are thrown into it. A small lamp would be snuffed out, but a big fire will engulf what is thrown at it and burn hotter; it consumes the obstacle and uses it to reach a higher level.
dope feelings belief
Put from you the belief that 'I have been wronged', and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.
morning men awake
If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, 'I awake to do the work of a man.'
nature art natural
No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms. - Variant: There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.