Talk:Marcus Aurelius

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Most statements attributed to Aurelius, where genuine, are very likely to be from translations of the Meditations, though different translators may phrase things differently, and sometimes with very different connotations.

• Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

• How much more grievous are the consequences of an event than the causes of it.

• If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; if we begin with doubts, and are patient, we shall end in certainties.

• If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. Meditations, Book VIII, article XLV. Krea 02:33, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

• In life the three acts are the whole drama; for what shall be a complete drama is determined by him who was once the cause of its composition, and now of its dissolution: but thou art not the cause of neither. Depart then satisfied; for he also who releases thee is satisfied.

• Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which, today, arm you against the present.
  • See also: More quotes on the Future

• One can live well even in a palace.
  • (In this statement emphasis is placed upon a "good life" of good actions, rather than a life of dangerous excesses, shallow pursuits and unjust oppressions)

• The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard accordingly; and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue, and reasonable nature.

• Think of the totality of all Being, and what a mite of it is yours; think of all Time, and the brief fleeting instant of it that is allotted to yourself; think of Destiny, and how puny a part of it you are.

• We are all working together to one end, some with knowledge and design, and others without knowing what they do.