Marcus Aurelius Quotes

On staying steady during a crisis you cannot control:

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

On acting instead of debating your values online:

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

On responding to betrayal without becoming what betrayed you:

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

On staying honest in a negotiation where lying would be easier:

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

On downsizing a life built around things you do not need:

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

On finding the will to show up on the mornings that feel impossible:

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work as a human being.

On letting a small argument spiral into something bigger:

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

On fact checking a rumor before repeating it:

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

On reframing a forced life change as a fresh start:

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.

On finding wonder again after a long stretch of grief:

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

Grieving a job, relationship, or chapter of life that has ended:

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

Feeling paralyzed by regret over a past decision:

Confine yourself to the present.

Learning to accept difficult family members instead of resenting them:

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast, and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

Preparing for a hard conversation with a difficult coworker:

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.

Deciding whether to finally take the leap you have been postponing:

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

Letting go of what others think of your choices:

How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

Worrying about an uncertain job market before making a move:

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Talking yourself out of a goal that feels too hard:

Because a thing is difficult for you, do not therefore suppose it to be beyond mortal power.