Marcus Aurelius:
(Latin: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus)
(Rome, 26 April 121 – Vindobona or Sirmium, 17 March 180). Emperor from 161 to 180 over the Roman Empire. Not to be confused with Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
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.
Do not engage in actions that are not morally right, And do not speak words that are not truthful.
Instead of daydreaming about what you lack, focus on acknowledging the greatest blessings you currently have, and appreciate how much you would desire them if they were not already yours.
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do. Only what you do.
If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
As a millstone can grind all kinds of grain, so a strong soul must be able to accept all events.
Failing to understand the workings of one’s mind is bound to lead to unhappiness.
I do what is mine to do; the rest does not disturb me.
He who lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the universe.
Never let the future intimidate you. The weapons of reason with which you now defend yourself will serve you then, if need be.
Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.
A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
You can also commit injustice by doing nothing.
Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people — unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You’ll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing, and why, and what they’re saying, and what they’re thinking, and what they’re up to, and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from focusing on your own mind.
The opinion of 10.000 men is of no value if none of them knows anything about the subject.
Very little is needed to make a happy life: it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.
