At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm? —But it’s nicer here… So you were born to feel ‘nice’? Instead of doings things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands? —But we have to sleep sometime… Agreed. But nature set a limit on that—as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota. You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.
Marcus Aurelius
Related Stand for something. Make your life mean something. Start where you are with what you have. You are ... GERMANY KENT I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES O woman, father says natural is beautiful so why do you redden your cheeks and blac... KAMAND KOJOURI The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following... SETH GODIN Now that you’re old, cut yourself some slack, would you? Let yourself off the hook. LIONEL FISHER We’re all scared. Yes, all of us. I’m afraid every day. If I’m not afraid, I must n... RICHIE NORTON Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and ... MARY SCHMICH Daisy stared worriedly into his shadowed face. “What if you change your mind about me? What if you... LISA KLEYPAS DON'T SAY, DO Do not say things You think I want to hear. Instead, S... SUZY KASSEM I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and si... HARUKI MURAKAMI ROSE: I love you, Jack. JACK: No...don’t say your goodbyes, Rose. Don’t you give up. ... JAMES FRANCIS CAMERON You don't tell an astronaut what to do. ATMOSPHERE Do not shed tears when I have gone but smile instead because I have lived.
Do not shut your eye... DAVID HARKINS Do what you love. Do what makes your heart sing. And NEVER do it for the money, Go to... MARIANNE WILLIAMSON But… all I said was that I was scared." After what you got to experience? That's smart... JIM BUTCHER I don’t have a philosophy: I have senses... If I talk about Nature, it’s not because I know... ALBERTO CAEIRO how far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps? how often have you... WARSAN SHIRE I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with. Tell me why you loved... ANDREA GIBSON We both know... that soon everything is going to end... ... This chat will be in the... DEYTH BANGER I thought that I was the Warrior and Cersei was the Maid, but all the time she was the Stranger, ... GEORGE R.R. MARTIN Thus Epicurus also, when he designs to destroy the natural fellowship of mankind, at the same time m... EPICTETUS Captain Harvile: Poor Phoebe, she would not have forgotten him so soon. It was not in her nature. JANE AUSTEN This is your life. Do what you want and do it often. If you don't like something, change it. <... HOLSTEE MANIFESTO Because like the depths of the ocean that calls you home, you will never be easy. But dar... JEANETTE LEBLANC Do you really want to know why you lost?” I asked. “Do you really have an answer?” he cou... MARIA V. SNYDER Everyone always says how I'm so smart, but they don't know what it's like being me. always feeling l... SUSANE COLASANTI Harry’s letter to his daughter: If I could give you just one thing, I’d want it to be... HARRY BROWNE when you walk, you look like you’re trying to disappear. your back is gonna be fucked up. CAITLYN SIEHL i want to apologize to all the women i have called beautiful before i’ve called them intellig... RUPI KAUR You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles thro... MARY OLIVER You don’t understand,” my dad said. “They stop you.” “Who? What are you talkin... CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ How To Tell If Somebody Loves You: Somebody loves you if they pick an eyelash off of your face ... RYAN O'CONNELL You’d have a list of notes of things that the player did and they’d want you to do it that way i... MICHAEL HOLLEY FORBIDDEN Pain without learning is forbidden, waking up one day not knowing what to do, JOSé N. HARRIS You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, If you do not lis... MARTHA MEDEIROS How do you love your children? By doing what's best for them. Then how would you love your... J. GRANT HOWARD Of everything I have seen, it's you I want to go on seeing: of everything I've touched, ... PABLO NERUDA The error all women commit. Why can’t you women love us, faults and all? Why do you place us ... OSCAR WILDE A shower. Still equipped with warm, running water.” I say longingly. I refuse to let up about... TRACEY WARD THE INVITATION by Oriah Mountain Dreamer It doesn't interest me what you do for a li... ORIAH MOUNTAIN DREAMER The only person that should wear your ring is the one person that would never… 1... SHANNON L. ALDER People want the here and now, rather than the there and after; as most are living in the where and w... ANTHONY LICCIONE Tell me what it is that you are hiding behind your eyes. Tell me of the pain, so I can make it ... JOSé N. HARRIS Breaking the circle” My eyes darken when I see my new lover. Fresh prey. My body d... ASPER BLURRY And recite to them the news of Abraham When he said to his father and his people: What do you ... QURAN We’re not talking about you. You’re Braith of the Darkness. I’m Addolgar the Cheerful. I’ve ... G.A. AIKEN You have to believe that your voice can mean something. You have to believe that what you do matters... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON I’m not for you,” I say desperately. “We are so different. Our lives are a thousand and one wo... JESSICA KHOURY The Forest is dark, dearie, The Forest is dark; The moment you think that you’re lost in the ... EMORY R. FRIE That’s when I realized that I really loved you.” She sat down on the floor with me. She sp... STEPHEN CHBOSKY Work is satisfying. Staying up late until your eyes beg you for sleep, sitting constantly... VISHAL OSTWAL Were you there?” She shook her head. “No. I was here in Nain having a child.” �... FRANCINE RIVERS What do you see when you look at me?” My eyes narrowed and I pressed my lips together, ... RACHAEL WADE Do not hold your breath for anyone, Do not wish your lungs to be still, It may delay the c... ERIN HANSON Money is not respect. Neither is power. And if people respect you for your money or your power, it i... CHRISTINA ENGELA It’s 11 am and I’m sitting in a restaurant 3 beers in. Believe me, even I’m surprised <... CLEMENTINE VON RADICS A Gift for You I send you... The gift of a letter from your wise self. This is the p... S.A.R.K. -Desiderata- Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may... MAX EHRMANN I ask the impossible: love me forever. Love me when all desire is gone. Love me with the s... ANA CASTILLO Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transve... KURT VONNEGUT Don’t pack out ______________ To some people, you make life bright When you d... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR Have you ever asked yourself, do monsters make war, or does war make monsters? ... Armies need beast... LAINI TAYLOR Butterfly. What a beautiful word What a delicate creature. Delicate like the cruel wo... COLLEEN HOOVER I could go on all night, Lake. I could go on and on and on about all the reasons I’m in love with ... COLLEEN HOOVER If you don't think it's a good deal you don't think you should be doing this challenge o... JOEY GILBERT And now, Henry," said Miss Tilney, "that you have made us understand each other, you may as well mak... JANE AUSTEN It’s one thing to have a support system in your life to cheer you on during the instances whe... ALICIA COOK The best thing you can do for your kids is to show them God working in you on a daily basis. CRAIG GROESCHEL WOMAN: Hi, where are your copies of Breaking Dawn? I can't see any on the shelf. BOOKSELLER: So... JEN CAMPBELL We often fear that the Revolution needed is too big for what we can give. Too much change is re... LUCY H. PEARCE ... so this is for us. This is for us who sing, write, dance, act, study, run and love and... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON If you can’t find good in your own country, you won’t find it anywhere else.” The wo... ALAA AL ASWANY When I touched that boy, I felt something. Something awful. Something I can’t describe.” �... NEAL SHUSTERMAN Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In t... STEVEN PRESSFIELD Tikkun olam.” Exactly. Basically, it says that the world has been broken into pieces. A... DAVID LEVITHAN 1. Be Impeccable With Your Word Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the w... MIGUEL RUIZ What I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wond... A.A. MILNE How do you feel when you want to stand and you see yourself on the floor? Sometimes what God wi... PATIENCE JOHNSON Being with a friend in great pain is not easy. It makes us uncomfortable. We do not know what to do ... HENRI J.M. NOUWEN I suppose I wanted to have my cake and eat it. But then again, what were you going to do with y... MARIAN KEYES Amor" So many days, oh so many days seeing you so tangible and so close, how do... PABLO NERUDA This is your last chance to do the right thing.' 'Do you want to attack first, or will I?' DEREK LANDY Do you even know,” she said, and I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was about to cr... ANN LECKIE The Type Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else. -Richard Siken SARAH KAY And the thing about love," Wally said to Angel, "is that you can’t force anyone. It’s natural to... JOHN IRVING You have what others don't have. This is good news which means you can do what others can't do! You ... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR 1. Accept everything just the way it is. 2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake. 3. Do n... MIYAMOTO MUSASHI All right, so give me some idea of what you can do," says Haymitch. I can’t do anything... SUZANNE COLLINS Yawn... I believe that I love sleep much more than anybody I’ve ever met. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I like pouring your tea, lifting the heavy pot, and tipping it up, so the fragrant liquid ... CAROL ANN DUFFY To the most inconsiderate asshole of a friend, I’m writing you this letter because I know tha... CECELIA AHERN Do you see, Harry? Do you see the flaw in my brilliant plan now? I had fallen into the trap I had fo... J.K. ROWLING My mother tells me that when I meet someone I like, I have to ask them three questions: CAITLYN SIEHL Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track t... JOSEPH CAMPBELL As you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that your journey be a long one, filled wit... BARRY B. POWELL Adrian looked over at me again. “Who knows more about male weakness: you or me?” “G... RICHELLE MEAD Höderer: You don't love men, Hugo. You love only principles. Hugo: Men? Why should I love the... JEAN-PAUL SARTRE THE ONE THING YOU MUST DO There is one thing in this world you must never forget to do. I... RUMI Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a de... ROBERT A. HEINLEIN all those nights with the phone warming the side of my face like the sun. you made jokes and sure, i... WARSAN SHIRE
More Marcus Aurelius
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the futur... MARCUS AURELIUS What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat. MARCUS AURELIUS Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise ... MARCUS AURELIUS Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers. MARCUS AURELIUS Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday. MARCUS AURELIUS The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations ... MARCUS AURELIUS When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life. MARCUS AURELIUS Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is... MARCUS AURELIUS There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with. MARCUS AURELIUS Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it. MARCUS AURELIUS Be content to seem what you really are. MARCUS AURELIUS You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long. MARCUS AURELIUS Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be... MARCUS AURELIUS The act of dying is one of the acts of life. MARCUS AURELIUS Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle. MARCUS AURELIUS Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature. MARCUS AURELIUS The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. MARCUS AURELIUS Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education wit... MARCUS AURELIUS Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with ... MARCUS AURELIUS The universe is transformation: life is opinion. MARCUS AURELIUS The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. MARCUS AURELIUS Poverty is the mother of crime. MARCUS AURELIUS The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away. MARCUS AURELIUS Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. MARCUS AURELIUS The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. MARCUS AURELIUS The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. MARCUS AURELIUS Each day provides its own gifts. MARCUS AURELIUS A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions. MARCUS AURELIUS Confine yourself to the present. MARCUS AURELIUS To refrain from imitation is the best revenge. MARCUS AURELIUS Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finis... MARCUS AURELIUS I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet ... MARCUS AURELIUS To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution. MARCUS AURELIUS How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks. MARCUS AURELIUS Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. MARCUS AURELIUS Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil. MARCUS AURELIUS Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig. MARCUS AURELIUS Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought t... MARCUS AURELIUS The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. MARCUS AURELIUS For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose. MARCUS AURELIUS Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for s... MARCUS AURELIUS Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. MARCUS AURELIUS When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to lo... MARCUS AURELIUS The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts. MARCUS AURELIUS And in the case of superior things like stars, we discover a kind of unity in separation. The higher... MARCUS AURELIUS If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. MARCUS AURELIUS Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault o... MARCUS AURELIUS A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions. MARCUS AURELIUS Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life. MARCUS AURELIUS Our life is what our thoughts make it. MARCUS AURELIUS If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your est... MARCUS AURELIUS Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life. MARCUS AURELIUS The art of living is more like that of wrestling than of dancing; the main thing is to stand firm an... MARCUS AURELIUS Your life is what your thoughts make it. MARCUS AURELIUS And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last. MARCUS AURELIUS Do every act of your life as if it were your last. MARCUS AURELIUS Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig. MARCUS AURELIUS Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last. MARCUS AURELIUS Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, ... MARCUS AURELIUS Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else. MARCUS AURELIUS Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the go... MARCUS AURELIUS I have often wondered how it is everyone loves himself more than the rest of men, but yet sets less ... MARCUS AURELIUS Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already. MARCUS AURELIUS If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own ... MARCUS AURELIUS A man's life is what his thoughts make of it. MARCUS AURELIUS Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, t... MARCUS AURELIUS To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits... MARCUS AURELIUS One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, th... MARCUS AURELIUS The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid. MARCUS AURELIUS Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man--yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. S... MARCUS AURELIUS Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. MARCUS AURELIUS Where a man can live, he can also live well. MARCUS AURELIUS Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear. MARCUS AURELIUS A man should be upright, not be kept upright. MARCUS AURELIUS Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. Pass then through this little space of ... MARCUS AURELIUS Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself go... MARCUS AURELIUS Let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good... MARCUS AURELIUS Men exist for the sake of one another. MARCUS AURELIUS Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dy... MARCUS AURELIUS In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushli... MARCUS AURELIUS If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them... MARCUS AURELIUS Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that tim... MARCUS AURELIUS Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. MARCUS AURELIUS Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion. MARCUS AURELIUS He tells himself over and over again in any choice presented to him, 'Prefer the hard.' This holds g... MARCUS AURELIUS Perfection of character consists in this; living each day as if it were the last, and spending each ... MARCUS AURELIUS Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against ma... MARCUS AURELIUS When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life. MARCUS AURELIUS He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe. MARCUS AURELIUS Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would ... MARCUS AURELIUS Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, This is a mi... MARCUS AURELIUS When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity, lose no time in recovering your self-control, and... MARCUS AURELIUS Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is unc... MARCUS AURELIUS A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something. MARCUS AURELIUS Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself g... MARCUS AURELIUS How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. MARCUS AURELIUS Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-re... MARCUS AURELIUS Glory paid to our ashes comes too late MARCUS AURELIUS The flaw which is hidden is deemed greater than it is MARCUS AURELIUS Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst MARCUS AURELIUS Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish. MARCUS AURELIUS For all their compliments do verses pay? They mayn't, yet these same poems make me gay MARCUS AURELIUS The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury MARCUS AURELIUS So great is the modesty of your mind and face, Sophronius that I wonder you should ever have become ... MARCUS AURELIUS If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own ... MARCUS AURELIUS Remember this, - that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of ... MARCUS AURELIUS How much more grevious are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. -Marcus Aurelius. MARCUS AURELIUS The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer. MARCUS AURELIUS You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say. MARCUS AURELIUS How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only ... MARCUS AURELIUS When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungra... MARCUS AURELIUS Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortu... MARCUS AURELIUS Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt alway... MARCUS AURELIUS Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolen... MARCUS AURELIUS The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know th... MARCUS AURELIUS When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetra... MARCUS AURELIUS The best revenge is not to be like your enemy. MARCUS AURELIUS I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet ... MARCUS AURELIUS Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking. MARCUS AURELIUS If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I see... MARCUS AURELIUS Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,bu... MARCUS AURELIUS Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. MARCUS AURELIUS Each day provides its own gifts MARCUS AURELIUS Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content wit... MARCUS AURELIUS Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, wh... MARCUS AURELIUS Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the n... MARCUS AURELIUS The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, ... MARCUS AURELIUS Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatu... MARCUS AURELIUS You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. MARCUS AURELIUS How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. MARCUS AURELIUS Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. MARCUS AURELIUS Anger cannot be dishonest. MARCUS AURELIUS Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought t... MARCUS AURELIUS Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live. MARCUS AURELIUS We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grape... MARCUS AURELIUS To live happily is an inward power of the soul. MARCUS AURELIUS That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees. MARCUS AURELIUS The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ra... MARCUS AURELIUS Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly al... MARCUS AURELIUS Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last. MARCUS AURELIUS Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they wo... MARCUS AURELIUS It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. MARCUS AURELIUS Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. MARCUS AURELIUS Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee. MARCUS AURELIUS Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man;... MARCUS AURELIUS We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and ... MARCUS AURELIUS Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, b... MARCUS AURELIUS A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, ... MARCUS AURELIUS Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason ... MARCUS AURELIUS When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to... MARCUS AURELIUS Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. MARCUS AURELIUS Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imaginatio... MARCUS AURELIUS For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not ... MARCUS AURELIUS From the philosopher Catulus, never to be dismissive of a friend's accusation, even if it seems unre... MARCUS AURELIUS He misses what is meant by epigram - who thinks it only frivolous flimflam MARCUS AURELIUS 'Tis easy to write epigrams nicely but to write a book is hard MARCUS AURELIUS The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ra... MARCUS AURELIUS I would rather smell of nothing than of perfume MARCUS AURELIUS Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, 'I have been harmed.' Take away ... MARCUS AURELIUS Come, Caesar, even by night - let stars delay; If thou but come, thy folk will find it day MARCUS AURELIUS To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution MARCUS AURELIUS Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday MARCUS AURELIUS The guest at the lower end of the middle couch, with three hairs on his bald head and his scalp stre... MARCUS AURELIUS Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolen... MARCUS AURELIUS Be like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly; but it stands fast and around it th... MARCUS AURELIUS Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, t... MARCUS AURELIUS The passing minute is every man's equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours MARCUS AURELIUS The present joys of life we doubly taste by looking back with pleasure on the past MARCUS AURELIUS You may send poetry to the rich; to poor men give substantial presents MARCUS AURELIUS Zoilus, why do you delight in using a whole pound weight of gold for the setting of a stone, and thu... MARCUS AURELIUS Remember this that very little is needed to make a happy life. MARCUS AURELIUS When the crowd of your admirers is shouting, "Bravo! Hear, hear!" it is not you, Pomponius, but your... MARCUS AURELIUS You see these fish carved finely in relief by Phidian art? Add water; they will swim MARCUS AURELIUS When I was ill, you came to me, Doctor, and with great urgency A hundred students brought With you A... MARCUS AURELIUS It is a mistake to think that Acerra reeks of yesterday's liquor: Acerra always drinks till next mor... MARCUS AURELIUS Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, t... MARCUS AURELIUS Rest lightly on her earth, for she trod never heavily on thee MARCUS AURELIUS Do you make a grievance of weighing so many pounds only instead of three hundred? Then why fret abou... MARCUS AURELIUS You say, Senca, that you were violated by robbers, but the robbers deny it MARCUS AURELIUS Light may earth's crumbling sand be laid on thee, that dogs may dig thy bones up easily MARCUS AURELIUS How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with th... MARCUS AURELIUS No amount of misfortune will satisfy the man who is not satisfied with reading a hundred epigrams MARCUS AURELIUS Nothing in nature is evil. MARCUS AURELIUS It certainly is uncomfortable for everybody. It's somewhat of an anomaly. We're still in August but ... MARCUS AURELIUS I think if we had the same magnitude of devastation that they had, we would be very much challenged ... MARCUS AURELIUS If it does not fit leave it, if it is not true do not say it. MARCUS AURELIUS To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice MARCUS AURELIUS Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee MARCUS AURELIUS The man who has a house everywhere has a home nowhere MARCUS AURELIUS Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear MARCUS AURELIUS If you want him to mourn, you had best leave him nothing MARCUS AURELIUS I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet ... MARCUS AURELIUS Your face is black, your hair like flame, And one eye's damaged, one foot lame: If, still, you're qu... MARCUS AURELIUS You ask me, Linus what my field out at Nomentum is to yield? Well this it yields to me: the view, my... MARCUS AURELIUS To yield to the stronger is valor's second prize MARCUS AURELIUS The height of farce it is, I ween, To be so perfumed and anointed, And when one's appetite's most ke... MARCUS AURELIUS Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking MARCUS AURELIUS Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dy... MARCUS AURELIUS There is no glory in outstripping donkeys MARCUS AURELIUS Why do you wrap up your neck in a woolen muffler when you are going to recite? The muffler would be ... MARCUS AURELIUS