Quotations by Marcus Aurelius

All that is in tune with you, O Universe, is in tune with me: nothing that comes in season for you is too early or too late for me.

• On Relation to the past, their position: Amor fati95%

As Antoninus, my city and homeland is Rome; as a man, it is the world.

• On Belonging, their position: Cosmopolitanism90%

Begin each day by telling yourself: today I shall meet the meddler, the ungrateful, the insolent; but none can bind me to what is base, nor make me angry at a kinsman.

• On Status of emotions, their position: The primacy of reason93%

Men seek retreats for themselves, in the country, by the sea, in the hills; but nowhere can a man withdraw into more quiet than into his own soul.

• On Interiority, their position: The examined life80%

No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor lives any other than the one he now loses.

• On Temporal orientation, their position: Living in the present85%

Pass out of life as a ripe olive falls, blessing the nature that produced it and giving thanks to the tree on which it grew.

• On Death, their position: Freeing ourselves from the fear60%

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

• On Moral demandingness, their position: Maximalism85%

What I am is only a little flesh, a little breath, and the ruling part.

• On Being or having a body, their position: The body as instrument85%

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee either.

• On Self-interest and others, their position: Altruism83%

What stands in the way of action advances action. What blocks the road becomes the road.

• On The meaning of suffering, their position: Fecundity and redemption70%