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
likes needs none pity
I think he needs our pity who likes none
wall soldier needs
Don't be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you've been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?
giving needs
Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives us.
revenge wrath needs
The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. 'The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.'
destiny needs patterns
Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?
beautiful law needs
That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.
fire needs inward
Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces - to what is possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp. What's thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it - and makes it burn still higher.
soul asking needs
You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.
exist free robber writes
The robber of your free will," writes Epictetus, "does not exist
compared embrace music sexual
The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.
astonished fraud frequently friend good learn man regard
Are you astonished Aulus, that our friend Fabullinus is so frequently deceived? A good man has always something to learn in regard to fraud
both remembered remembers
Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered
break fast rest rock sink stands waters waves
Be like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly; but it stands fast and around it the seething of the waters sink to rest
future lies life past spent uncertain within
Everyman's life lies within the present, for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain