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
children care reason
If the gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for it.
children age youth
Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear?
children war holiday
Consider, for example, and you will find that almost all the transactions in the time of Vespasian differed little from those of the present day. You there find marrying and giving in marriage, educating children, sickness, death, war, joyous holidays, traffic, agriculture, flatterers, insolent pride, suspicions, laying of plots, longing for the death of others, newsmongers, lovers, misers, men canvassing far the consulship and for the kingdom; yet all these passed away, and are nowhere.
children thinking plant
Everything is born from change. ...there is nothing nature loves more that to alter what exists and make new things like it. All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the one that make plants and children? Go deeper.
children moving two
If I and my two children cannot move the gods, the gods must have their reasons.
children men tyrants
What use do I put my soul to? It is a serviceable question this, and should frequently be put to oneself. How does my ruling part stand affected? And whose soul have I now? That of a child, or a young man, or a feeble woman, or of a tyrant, of cattle or wild beasts.
children names opinion
Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of Lamiae, bugbears to frighten children.
aim sin sinners spare writings
In all my writings my aim has been to spare sinners and assail sin
amount hundred man misfortune reading satisfied satisfy
No amount of misfortune will satisfy the man who is not satisfied with reading a hundred epigrams
order prepared
I mean, you never know how these things are going to go, but I always want to be prepared that I have everything in order so if I need to go then I can. Because, obviously, if there's not electric, there's not gas.
enjoy life man quick
No man is quick enough to enjoy life
formed happens man nature
Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
account full gratitude remember
Take full account of what excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
accept court declining favor gave grave invitation reason repay socrates wish
Socrates gave as his reason for declining an invitation to the court of Perdiccas, "I have no wish to go down to my grave with ignominy;" implying that he would accept no favor which he could not repay