Quotes
Quotes - Aurelius
That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.
Whatever happens at all happens as it should; thou wilt find this true, if thou shouldst watch narrowly.
Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference.
Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.
Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.
All that is harmony for thee, O Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for thee is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature. All things come of thee, have their being in thee, and return to thee.
"Let thine occupations be few," saith the sage, "if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life."
Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
Remember this,--that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
All is ephemeral,--fame and the famous as well.
Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them.
Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.
That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.
Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man,--yesterday in embryo, to-morrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hair's-breadth of time assigned to thee live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.
Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.
In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; "I am rising to a man's work."
A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.
Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.
