Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.

We have already discovered the fact that fear is the chief reason for poverty and failure and misery that takes on a thousand different forms. We have already discovered the fact that the man who masters fear may march on to successful achievement in practically any undertaking, despite all efforts to defeat him.

I mean only that I hope they find darkness or paradise without fear of it, if they can.

If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful.

Oh my brethren, Bold hearted men are always called mean-spirited by cowards!

A man´s level of dignity must always be above his level of fear.

Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.

Part of the reason my friends and I became successful is that we were always helping each other.

All men have fears, but the brave put down their fears and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to victory.

Education confers humility, endows one with the authority to command, that will entitle one to affluence. With the help of charity and compassion this affluence can be made fruitful, and by this means, happiness in this world and peace in the next can be won.

I hate cowardice; I will have nothing to do with cowards or political nonsense.

Failure is an option, fear is not.

Bravery is a mean state concerned with things that inspire confidence and with things fearful ... and leading us to choose danger and to face it, either because to do so is noble, or because not to do so is base. But to court death as an escape from poverty, or from love, or from some grievous pain, is no proof of bravery, but rather of cowardice.

Impeccability of the word can lead you to personal freedom, to huge success and abundance; it can take away all fear and transform it into joy and love.

I think parenting well is not so different than trying to consider how to be successful at any relationship. Like, how do you partner well? How do you collaborate well? How do we have this conversation well? You know, you're always trying to figure out what "well" means, so I think parenting is another version of that.

If you are not successful, that means you're not making enough mistakes.

The only reason I am successful is because I have stayed true to myself.

The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both. I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man No longer a human being. It is a successful combination of both. That way it is a process of continuing growth.

When you're successful for so many years, the scariest part is that you're getting too comfortable because you've had so much success.

I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me . . . Failure always made me try harder next time.

The desire to be a free person is very worthwhile. To be free means you are no longer the victim of fear, anger, craving, or suspicion.

We all struggle. I'm not saying any successful woman's life is without struggle. But it doesn't mean it has to be miserable.

When a man doesn't know the meaning of the word 'fear', that might just be a deficiency in his education.

Every day I wake up like, "This might be my last day, and I'm not scared of it. I'm gonna go out there, do what I gotta do; I ain't gonna let nothing stop me." Nothing puts any fear in my heart. I'm never scared to bite my tongue about something, or never be scared to come out and speak about something - that's what I mean. Like, I ain't scared of death. What you gonna do to me?

If you don't have both of them working together in a complementary, cohesive way, you're not going to be successful.