“There is nothing manly in being angry, but a gentle calm is both more human and therefore more virile. It is the gentle who have strength, sinew, and courage—not the indignant and complaining. The closer to control of emotion, the closer to power. Anger is as much a sign of weakness as is pain.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 111)
“Calculated honesty is a stiletto. There is nothing more degrading than the friendship of wolves: avoid that above all. The good, honest, kindly man has it in his eyes, and you cannot mistake him.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 99)
“No more roundabout discussion of what makes a good man. Be one!”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 99)
“You might think that the Stoics were these unfeeling people…But that’s actually not true at all…Marcus Aurelius said that he learned from one of his mentors to be free of passions but full of love. If you want to feel good, if you want to be loved by other people, it’s about what you put out in the world…Because ultimately that’s what you control. If you want to feel better, don’t go expecting other people to validate you or to give you what you want. Give what you want. Marcus says if you want to feel good, do good. See everyone you meet, as Seneca said, as an opportunity to practice kindness. And the rest will take care of itself.”
Ryan Holiday
“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you. But you should still be kind to them. They are by nature your friends, and the gods too help them in various ways—dreams and divination—at least to the objects of their concern.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 88)
“The sinner sins against himself: the wrongdoer wrongs himself, by making himself morally bad.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 85)
“Do you want the praise of a man who curses himself three times an hour? Do you want to please a man who can’t please himself? Can a man please himself when he regrets almost everything he does?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 81)
“Ask yourself this about each action: ‘How does this sit with me? Shall I regret it?’ In short while I am dead and all things are gone. What more do I want, if this present work is that of an intelligent and social being, sharing one law with god?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 76)
“When you have done good and another has benefited, why do you still look, as fools do, for a third thing besides—credit for good works, or a return?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 69)
“The happy life depends on very little. And do not think, just because you have given up hope of becoming a philosopher or a scientist, you should therefore despair of a free spirit, integrity, social conscience, obedience to god. It is wholly possible to become a ‘divine man’ without anybody’s recognition.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 68)
“Dig inside yourself. Inside there is a spring of goodness ready to gush at any moment, if you keep digging.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 67)
“Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before this moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus, and live it as nature directs.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 66)
“Look back over the past—all those many changes of dynasties. And you can foresee the future too: it will be completely alike, incapable of deviating from the rhythm of the present. So for the study of human life forty years are as good as ten thousand: what more will you see?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 65)
“On fame. Look at their minds, the nature of their thought and what they seek or avoid. And see how, just as drifting sands constantly overlay the previous sand, so in our lives what we once did is very quickly covered over by subsequent layers.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 63)
“On death. Either dispersal, if we are atoms: or, if we are a unity, extinction or a change of home.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 63)
“Do not dream of possession of what you do not have: rather reflect on the greatest blessings in what you do have, and on their account remind yourself how much they would have been missed if they were not there. But at the same time you must be careful not to let your pleasure in them habituate you to dependency, to avoid distress if they are sometimes absent.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 62)
“Soon you will have forgotten all things: soon all things will have forgotten you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 61)
“How many who once rose to fame are now consigned to oblivion: and how many who sang their fame are long disappeared.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 59)
“What does not benefit the hive does not benefit the bee either.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 57)
“Is it not strange that the architect and the doctor will show greater respect for the guiding principle of their craft than man will for his own guiding principle, which he was in common with the gods?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 53)