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Life Quotes From Marcus Aurelius

I was first introduced to Marcus Aurelius from Ryan Holiday, who has stated Meditations is his favorite book. I’ve found the wisdom profound, and have written here some of the words that spoke most to me.


The foolishness of people who are amazed by anything that happens. Like travelers amazed at foreign customs.


Practice even what seems to be impossible. The left hand is useless at almost everything, for lack of practice. But it guides the reins better than the right. From practice.

i. That you’ve made enough mistakes yourself.
iii. When you lose your temper, or even feel irritated: that human life is very short. Before long all of us will be laid out side by side.

To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.




See human life for what it is: Smoke. Nothing. Especially when you recall that once things alter they cease to exist through all the endless years to come. Then why such turmoil? To live your brief life rightly, isn’t that enough?

When faced with people’s bad behavior, turn around and ask when you have acted like that. Your anger will subside as soon as you recognize that they acted under compulsion.

When you face someone’s insults, hatred, whatever… look at his soul. Get inside him. Look at what sort of person he is. You’ll find you don’t need to strain to impress him.


You want praise from people who kick themselves every fifteen minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves. Is it a sign of self-respect to regret nearly everything you do?




And why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice!

Treat what you don’t have as non-existent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you’d crave if you didn’t have them. But be careful. Don’t feel such satisfaction that ou start to overvalue them – that it would upset you to lose them.


Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and need a comrade to pull you up? So what?


Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their minds.

Disgraceful: for the soul to give up when the body is still going strong.


Matter: How tiny your share of it.
Time: How brief  and fleeting your allotment of it.
Fate: How small a role you play in it.




To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved as  the raging of the sea falls still around it.

Look into their minds, at what the wise do and don’t.

Nothing that goes on in anyone’s mind can harm you. Nor can the shifts and changes in the world around you.
Then where is the harm to be found? In your capacity to see it. Stop doing that and everything will be fine.

You have a mind? Yes. Well, why not use it? Isn’t that all you want – for it to do its job?




Yes, keep on degrading yourself, soul. But soon your chance at dignity will be gone. Everyone gets one life. Yours is almost used up and instead of treating yourself with respect, you have entrusted your own happiness to the souls of others.

Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. But make sure you guard against the other kind of confusion. People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time even when hard at work.

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