Marcus Aurelius

To offend a strong man, tell him a lie. To offend a weak man, tell him the truth.

The obstacle is the way.

What are you afraid of losing, when nothing in the world actually belongs to you?

You don’t need to have an opinion about everything. Don’t get worked up about things you can’t control. These things didn’t ask for your attention. Leave them alone.

The wise man learns from every circumstance.

The desert teaches you more about water than the ocean ever could.

Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

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

What stands in the way becomes the way.

If something is humanly possible, it's attainable by you too.

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life at once.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Every day more of our life is used up and less and less of it is left.

Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

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

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

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

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

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

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.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.Love implies anger. The man who is angered by nothing cares about nothing.

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

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

It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.

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

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

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

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.

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

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

You have to assemble your life yourself, action by action.

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

You're better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.

If you don't have a consistent goal in life, you can't live it in a consistent way.

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

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions, not outside.

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility.

Let each thing you would do, say, or intend, be like that of a dying person.

Be satisfied with even the smallest progress.

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soule takes on the color of your thoughts.

If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, 'I awake to do the work of a man.'

Practice even what seems impossible.

Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.

Don’t you see how much you have to offer? And yet you still settle for less.

Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

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

But if something is humanly possible, consider it within your reach.