Several people are famous for the things they put forth for society to hear, and Marcus Aurelius is definitely one of them. If you’re looking to find the best quotes on love, success, death, and leadership, here are some of our top Marcus Aurelius quotes that are sure to inspire you. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was born on April 26, 121, and was the Emperor of Rome.
Besides being an emperor, he was also a Stoic philosopher who wrote the book ‘Meditations.’ He is remembered even today as one of the best emperors to have ever ruled Rome. The stoicism principle dictates that a person who has a virtue is good, and the ones who possess vice are bad.
All the activities that a person faces in their daily lives are nothing but distractions and do not contribute in any way to one’s happiness. This principle is thoroughly explained in his book ‘Meditations,’ and he puts forth a practice that is both practical and philosophical.
A man of truth and honor, he had some of the best things to say, which is why his words remain years after his death. Here are some of the best Marcus Aurelius quotes for your reading pleasure.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Life
1. Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.
2. Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
3. Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
4. It will even do to socialize with men of good character, in order to model your life on theirs, whether you choose someone living or someone from the past.
5. If we try to adapt our mind to the regular sequence of changes and accept the inevitable with good grace, our life will proceed quite smoothly and harmoniously.
6. The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
7. The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
8. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
9. You have to assemble your life yourself‚ action by action.
10. How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Love
When we think about love, we often think about loving another person. However, sometimes we fail to love ourselves. Self-love is rare, and when we don’t love ourselves, our entire being can start to frail and weaken. Here are some of the best Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Love that teach us the value of loving ourselves and loving others for who they are.
1. When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
2. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
3. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat.
4. To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony.
5. Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love.
6. If someone is incapable of distinguishing good things from bad and neutral things from either – well, how could such a person be capable of love? The power to love, then, belongs only to the wise man.
7. I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.
8. 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.
9. The spiritual meaning of love is measured by what it can do. Love is meant to heal. Love is meant to renew. Love is meant to bring us closer to God.
10. You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you.
Read: Tennessee Williams Quotes About Love
Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Success
A true emperor and a philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, believed in facing all the difficulties and obstacles head-on. He understood that the mind is the most important of all, and when one has control over their mind, they have the power to manifest success. Here are some of the top Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Success.
1. Never get into family fights over material things; give them up willingly, and your moral standing will increase in proportion.
2. Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
3. Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
4. Whenever externals are more important to you than your own integrity, then be prepared to serve them the remainder of your life.
5. Consider that before long you will be nobody and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist that you now see, nor any of those who are now living. For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned and to perish in order that other things in continuous succession may exist.
6. Show me one person who cares how they act, someone for whom success is less important than the manner in which it is achieved. While out walking, who gives any thought to the act of walking itself? Who pays attention to the process of planning, not just the outcome?
7. Just prove to me that you are trustworthy, high-minded and reliable, and that your intentions are benign – prove to me that your jar doesn’t have a hole in it – and you’ll find that I won’t even wait for you to open your heart to me, I’ll be the first to implore you to lend an ear to my own affairs.
8. Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful – and hence neither good nor bad.
9. It is not right that anything of any other kind, such as praise from the many, or power, or enjoyment of pleasure, should come into competition with that which is rationally and politically and practically good.
10. Being attached to many things, we are weighed down and dragged along with them.
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Marcus Aurelius Inspirational Quotes
Marcus Aurelius believed in pushing himself to the limits. He taught his followers to be tolerant of others’ faults but always to be strict to themselves. If we aren’t able to accept our flaws and work towards bettering them, we will always find ourselves stuck at the same spot, unable to grow. Here are some Marcus Aurelius Inspirational Quotes!
1. Remember this, that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
2. Yes, you can – if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.
3. It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.
4. Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbors, unless with a view to some mutual benefit. To wonder what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he is saying, or thinking, or scheming – in a word, anything that distracts you from fidelity to the ruler within you – means a loss of opportunity for some other task.
5. No man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.
6. People with a strong physical constitution can tolerate extremes of hot and cold; people of strong mental health can handle anger, grief, joy and the other emotions.
7. Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.
8. To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.
9. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.
10. Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one.
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Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death
Marcus Aurelius was a stoic philosopher who believed that all of us should lead a just and noble life. This life we live is not to be devoted to others’ opinions but our own. We must be able to die, knowing that we have lived the best life possible. Here are some of the top Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Death that explain the limited nature of humans.
1.It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
2. Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
3. Death. The end of sense-perception, of being controlled by our emotions, of mental activity, of enslavement to our bodies.
4. Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
5. Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
6. Death is not an evil. What is it then? The one law mankind has that is free of all discrimination.
7. Death and pain are not frightening, it’s the fear of pain and death we need to fear. Which is why we praise the poet who wrote, ‘Death is not fearful, but dying like a coward is.’
8. Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.
9. Death is necessary and cannot be avoided. I mean, where am I going to go to get away from it?
10. Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.
Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Leadership
Marcus Aurelius understood the value of a good leader and putting the team above everyone else. Running a country or having control over the citizens is not a job for the faint-hearted. Only people who are able to put their people over their selfish needs are able to become true leaders. Here are some of the top Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Leadership to help you build your own leadership style.
1. First, do nothing inconsiderately or without a purpose. Second, make your acts refer to nothing else but a social end.
2. Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
3. Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.
4. ‘Well, what will my profession in the community be?’ Whatever position you are equipped to fill, so long as you preserve the man of trust and integrity.
5. The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.
6. If you didn’t learn these things in order to demonstrate them in practice, what did you learn them for?
7. No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.
8. Don’t let outward appearances mislead you into thinking that someone with more prestige, power or some other distinction must on that account be happy.
9. What is your vocation? To be a good person.
10. To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind himself.