Philosophy Quote by Marcus Aurelius — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Stop wandering about! You aren't likely to read your own notebooks, or ancient histories, or the anthologies you've collected to enjoy in your old age. Get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue-if you care for yourself at all-and do it while you can.”

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.”

“Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.”

“If you hold to this - expecting nothing, fearing nothing, simply content with acting in accordance with our nature in the present moment, and speaking with complete honesty in everything we say - then you will live a happy life, and no one can stop you from doing so.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​”

“Casi todos nuestros clientes dejan de existir -¡no queda el alma!- o los reencarna el Dummkopf, al que no le gusta ceder a ninguna de sus criaturas, grandes o pequeñas, juiciosas o insensatas, lo cual puede que sea una razón de que el mundo esté cada vez más plagado de mediocridad.”

“It is when those who are not strong enough have made some moderate amount of progress that they fail and give up...”

“Your comfort zone is a place where you keep yourself in a self-illusion and nothing can grow there but your potentiality can grow only when you can think and grow out of that zone.”

“In particular those who are condemned to stagnation are often pronounced happy on the pretext that happiness consists in being at rest. This notion we reject, for our perspective is that of existentialist ethics. Every subject plays his part as such specifically through exploits or projects that serve as a mode of transcendence; he achieves liberty only through a continual reaching out towards other liberties. There is no justification for present existence other than its expansion into an indefinitely open future. Every time transcendence falls back into immanence, stagnation, there is a degradation of existence into the ‘en-sois’ – the brutish life of subjection to given conditions – and of liberty into constraint and contingence. This downfall represents a moral fault if the subject consents to it; if it is inflicted upon him, it spells frustration and oppression. In both cases it is an absolute evil. Every individual concerned to justify his existence feels that his existence involves an undefined need to transcend himself, to engage in freely chosen projects.”