Marcus Aurelius Quotes

I am the fellow citizen of every thinking man: Truth is my native land.

We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood. To hate a man because he was born in another land, because he speaks a different language, or because he has different views is a great folly. Desist, I implore you, for we are all equally human….Let us have but one end in view – the welfare of humanity.

Commonwealth is the only alternative for Puerto Rico. It is the only alternative that harmonizes the aspirations and goals of the modern world by protecting Puerto Rico's identity and simultaneously guaranteeing its relationship with the United States, complete with a common market, common citizenship, common defense, and common currency.

The Gods occupy the loftiest regions, men the lowest, the demons the middle region...They have immortality of body, but passions of the mind in common with men.

Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.

Nature's great law, and the law of all men's minds? To its own impulse every creature stirs: Live by thy light, and Earth will live by hers.

Man is at the bottom an animal, midway a citizen, and at the top divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top.

Worship is as natural to the human family as the sing of the sun is to the cosmic order.

The demographics are changing - and so what? Citizenship is a question of certain agreed-upon values and that is that. Do we believe that? I think at heart we do.

We now come to the grand law of the system in which we are placed, as it has been developed by the experience of our race, and that, in one word, is SACRIFICE!

Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.

there is a law of retribution in all things, direct or indirect, visible or invisible.

It is good to be often reminded of the inconsistency of human nature, and to learn to look without wonder or disgust on the weaknesses which are found in the strongest minds.

The Law which governs all life is God.

The civilized man is a larger mind but a more imperfect nature than the savage.

The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.

The human mind is generally far more eager to praise or dispraise than it is to describe and define.

The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of these countless snow-stars comes whirling to earth...these glorious spangles, the sweeping of heaven's floor.

It is that fundamental belief, it is that fundamental belief, I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.

The issue ultimately involved is whether there is a source of truth higher than, and independent of, man; and the answer to the question is decisive for one’s view of the nature and destiny of man.

It's about all of us, and the kind of world that we, together, want to live in and share.

Curiosity is part of the cement that holds society together.

My thesis is that morality exists outside the human mind in the sense of being not just a trait of individual humans, but a human trait; that is, a human universal.

Whether we love humanity or not, we must realize that we are part of it. My future depends entirely on the future of humanity, and so I am compelled to take care of humanity. That is why being compassionate is actually in my own best interest. And a symptom of my own peace of mind is that I can share comfort with others around me.

The animals might embody certain traits. We think of tigers as being ferocious, etc. But to my mind, it was the other way around: the humans embodied certain animal traits.