Marcus Aurelius Quotes

The more we control our mind, the more our inner peace increases and the happier we become

Peace is self-control at its widest-at the width where the "self" has been lost, and interest has been transferred to coordinations wider than personality.

If a man is crossing the river and an empty boat collides with his skiff, even though he is a bad tempered man he will not become very angry. But if he sees a man in the other boat he will scream and shout and curse at the man to steer clear. If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you. Thus is the perfect man - his boat is empty.

A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.

One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.

The mind has to be gradually and systematically brought under control.

Some models of self-control are able to achieve their serenity easily because the soul fires never burn brightly to begin with.

Those who have succeeded in attaching or detaching their minds at will have succeeded in Pratyahara, which means gathering towards, checking the outgoing powers of the mind, freeing it from the thralldom of the senses. When we can do this, we shall really possess character; then alone we shall have taken a long step towards freedom. Before that, we are mere machines.

Only by practice and non-attachment can we conquer mind.

You have two choices: to control your mind or to let your mind control you.

Beware of the anger of the body. Master the body. Let it serve truth. Beware of the anger of the mouth. Master your words. Let them serve truth. Beware of the anger of the mind. Master your thoughts. Let them serve truth.

Control your own mind, and you may never be controlled by the mind of another.

If you fail to control your own mind, you may be sure you will control nothing else.

Discipline is necessary to curb the mind, otherwise there is no peace.

I often paint tranquility. If you stop thinking and rest, then a little happiness comes into your mind. At perfect rest you are comfortable.

I always have kind of underneath feeling of peace of mind that I get from just the basic tenants of spirituality.

Fearlessness presupposes calmness and peace of mind.

In the same way that rain breaks into a house with a bad roof, desire breaks into the mind that has not been practising meditation.

It's like, imagine the ripples on top of an ocean. And I'm in a rowboat, reactively dealing with the waves and water coming into my boat. What I need to do is dive into the deeper solace, the calmness beneath the surface.

Every characteristic absence of spirituality, every piece of common vulgarity, is due to an inability to resist a stimulus - you have to react, you follow every impulse.

You don't have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you.

More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm.

You can't take a crash course in serenity.

The cause of happiness and the solution to our problems do not lie in knowledge of material things. Happiness and suffering are states of mind, and so their main causes cannot be found outside the mind. If we want to be truly happy and free from suffering, we must learn how to control our mind.

As meditation deepens, compulsions, cravings and fits of emotion begin to lose their power to dictate our behavior. We see clearly that choices are possible; we can say yes or we can say no. It is profoundly liberating.