Marcus Aurelius Quotes

An educated person must learn to act justly, beginning, first of all, with his thoughts, then later in his deeds. That is what it means to be educated.

The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

You do what you want and know is right. That is the only law.

I'm at peace with myself. The main thing is not letting people dictate what I do or what I am.

You can't let your personal disposition be dictated by the world around you.

My mission in life is to try and get to a point where my insides world is not affected by the outside world.

I try to handle myself with dignity.

You can't let people control your feelings, or you'll live a pretty miserable life trying to change them.

The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticise others.

The supernatural virtue of justice consists of behaving exactly as though there were equality when one is the stronger in an unequal relationship.

Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.

I guess I like who I am now. I'd just like to have a little more internal peace. I'm sure everybody would.

To treat others ethically is to act out of concern for their happiness and suffering.

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without.

With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world.

In vain will you fly from one vice if in your wilfulness you embrace another.

You must do right before you feel good.

I will live and die by this testimony: that I loved a good conscience; that I never invaded another man's liberty; and that I preserved my own.

As in everything else, I must start with myself. That is: in all circumstances try to be decent, just, tolerant, and understanding, and at the same time try to resist corruption and deception. In other words, I must do my utmost to act in harmony with my conscience and my better self.

Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.

The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.

We assume therefore that moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite.

When, in the present world, men behave well, that is no doubt sometimes because they are creatures of habit as well as, sometimes, because they are reasonable.