Marcus Aurelius Quotes

I do my research, and if I'm supporting something, then it's because it aligns with me morally and ethically.

He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

... no human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice.

I started playing chess when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It is very good for children to learn to play chess, because it helps them to develop their mental abilities. It also helps to consolidate a person's character, because as it happens both in life and in a chess game we have to make decisions constantly. In chess there is no luck and no excuses: everything is in your hands.

If we will measure other people's corn in our own bushel, let us first take it to the Divine standard, and have it sealed.

Reading enables me to maintain a sense of something substantive– my ethical integrity, my intellectual integrity.

Whence do I get my rules of conduct? I find them in my heart. Whatever I feel to be good is good. Whatever I feel to be evil is evil. Conscience is the best of casuists.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand.

This is my creed: Happiness is the only good; reason the only torch; justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only priest.

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won't come in. If you challenge your own, you won't be so quick to accept the unchallenged assumptions of others. You'll be a lot less likely to be caught up in bias or prejudice or be influenced by people who ask you to hand over your brains, your soul or your money because they have everything all figured out for you.

Justice is like the kingdom of God--it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning.

May your mind be thoroughly impressed with the absolute necessity of universal virtue and goodness, as the only sure road to happiness, and may you walk therein with undeviating steps.

The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.

From Apollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason.

I think that ethical behaviour is another feature of the kind of inner discipline that leads to a happier existence.

One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself.

Indeed the general natural Tendency of Reading good History, must be, to fix in the Minds of Youth deep Impressions of the Beauty and Usefulness of Virtue of all Kinds, Publick Spirit, Fortitude.

The foundations of justice are that on one shall suffer wrong; then, that the public good be promoted.

I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.

The principles of the good society call for a concern with an order of being - which cannot be proved existentially to the sense organs - where it matters supremely that the human person is inviolable, that reason shall regulate the will, that truth shall prevail over error.

Justice comes before charity.

While an ethic of justice proceeds from the premise of equality—that everyone should be treated the same—an ethic of care rests on the premise of nonviolence—that no one should be hurt.

One of the reasons I came into politics was because I thought I lacked the skills to be a social worker.