Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37) QUOTES

1 " to grumble at anything that happens is a rebellion against Nature, in some part of which are bound up the natures of all other things. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

2 " Of the life of man the duration is but a point, its substance streaming away, its perception dim, the fabric of the entire body prone to decay, and the soul a vortex, and fortune incalculable, and fame uncertain. In a word all the things of the body are as a river, and the things of the soul as a dream and a vapour; and life is a warfare and a pilgrim’s sojourn, and fame after death is only forgetfulness. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

3 " This that I am, whatever it be, is mere flesh and a little breath and the ruling Reason. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

4 " it is only this present, a moment of time, that a man lives: all the rest either has been lived or may never "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

5 " it is only this present, a moment of time, that a man lives: all the rest either has been lived or may never be. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

6 " 12. From Alexander the Platonist, not to say to anyone often or without necessity, nor write in a letter, I am too busy, nor in this fashion constantly plead urgent affairs as an excuse for evading the obligations entailed upon us by our relations towards those around us. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

7 " Call to mind how long you deffer these things, and how many times you have received from the Gods grace of the appointed day and you do not use it. Yet now, if never before, you should realize what Universe you are a part of, and as an emanation from what Controller of that Universe you subsist; and that a limit has been set to your time, which if you do not use it to let daylight into your soul, it will be gone and never again shall the chance be yours. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

8 " Every hour make up thy mind sturdily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with scrupulous and unaffected dignity and love of thy kind and independence and justice; and to give thyself rest from all other impressions. And thou wilt give thyself this, if thou dost execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last, divesting thyself of all aimlessness and all passionate antipathy to the convictions of reason, and all hypocrisy and self-love and dissatisfaction with thy allotted share. Thou seest how few are the things, by mastering which a man may lead a life of tranquillity and godlikeness; for the Gods also will ask no more from him who keeps these precepts. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

9 " Not easily is a man found to be unhappy by reason of his not regarding what is going on in another man’s soul; but those who do not attend closely to the motions of their own souls must inevitably be unhappy. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

10 " We ought not to think only upon the fact that our life each day is waning away, what is left of it being ever less, but this also should be a subject for thought, "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

11 " Fritter not away what is left of thy life in thoughts about others, unless thou canst bring these thoughts into "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

12 " For verily thou dost hereby cut thyself off from other work, that is, by thinking what so and so is doing and why, what he is saying, having what in mind, contriving what, and all the many like things such as whirl thee aside from keeping close watch over thine own ruling Reason. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

13 " From Alexander the grammarian, not to be captious; nor in a carping spirit find fault with those who import into their conversation any expression which is barbarous or ungrammatical or mispronounced, but tactfully to bring in the very expression, that ought to have been used, by way of answer, or as it were in joint support of the assertion, or as a joint consideration of the thing itself and not of the language, or by some such graceful reminder. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

14 " self-reliance and an unequivocal determination not to leave anything to chance; "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

15 " tactful treatment of all his friends, so that simply to be with him was more delightful than any flattery, while at the same time those who enjoyed this privilege looked up to him with the utmost reverence "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

16 " if all men disbelieve in his living a simple and modest and cheerful life, he is not wroth with any of them, nor swerves from the path which leads to his life’s goal, whither he must go pure, peaceful, ready for release, needing no force to bring him into accord with his lot. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

17 " That which holds the mastery within us, when it is in accordance with Nature, is so disposed towards what befalls, that it can always adapt itself with ease to what is possible and granted us. For it is wedded to no definite material, but, though in the pursuit of its high aims it works under reservations, yet it converts into material for itself any obstacle that it meets with, just as fire when it gets the mastery of what is thrown in upon it. A little flame would have been stifled by it, but the blazing fire instantly assimilates what is cast upon it and, consuming it, leaps the higher in consequence. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

18 " become aware of the fact that I needed amendment and training for my character; "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

19 " No man can part with either the past or the future. For how can a man be deprived of what he does not possess? These two things, then, must needs be remembered: the one, that all things from time everlasting have been cast in the same mould and repeated cycle after cycle, and so it makes no difference whether a man see the same things recur through a hundred years or two hundred, or through eternity: the other, that the longest liver and he whose time to die comes soonest part with no more the one than the other. For it is but the present that a man can be deprived of, if, as is the fact, it is this alone that he has, and what he has not a man cannot part with. "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)

20 " love of family, love of truth, love of justice, and (thanks to him!) to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, Brutus; and the conception of a state with one law for all, based upon individual equality and freedom of speech, and of a sovrainty which prizes above all things the liberty of the subject; "

― Marcus Aurelius , Delphi Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 37)