Quotessence
Home / Authors / Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Roman emperor

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsLifeMindSoulInspirationalThinkingPhilosophyUniversePhilosophicalDoeReasonAll ThingsShouldTheeRememberStoicismDeathLife IsThyself

Famous Marcus Aurelius Quotes

“What then, will a little fame distract you? Look at the speed of universal oblivion, the gulf of immeasurable time both before and after, the vacuity of applause, the indiscriminate fickleness of your apparent supporters, the tiny room in which all this is confined. The whole earth is a mere point in space: what a minute cranny within this is your own habitation, and how many and what sort will sing your praises here!”

DeathFameInsignificance
Book:Meditations
Create image

“Look at the thousands of flocks and herds, the thousands of human ceremonies, every sort of voyage in storm or calm, the range of creation, combination, and extinction. Consider too the lives once lived by others long before you, the lives that will be lived after you, the lives lived now among foreign tribes; and how many have never even heard your name, how many will very soon forget it, how many may praise you now but quickly turn to blame. Reflect that neither memory nor fame, nor anything else at all, has any importance worth thinking of.”

DeathTimeHumilityFame
Book:Meditations
Create image

“Your children are no more than ‘leaves’. ‘Leaves’ too these loud voices of loyal praise, these curses from your opponents, this silent blame of mockery: mere ‘leaves’ likewise those with custody of your future fame. All these ‘come round in the season of spring’: but then the wind blows them down, and the forest ‘puts out others’ in their stead. All things are short-lived – this is their common lot – but you pursue likes and dislikes as if all was fixed for eternity. In a little while you too will close your eyes, and soon there will be others mourning the man who buries you.”

DeathFameReputationAdmiration
Book:Meditations
Create image

“What a tiny part of the boundless abyss of time has been allotted to each of us – and this is soon vanished in eternity; what a tiny part of the universal substance and the universal soul; how tiny in the whole earth the mere clod on which you creep. Reflecting on all this, this nothing important other than active pursuit where your own nature leads and passive acceptance of what universal nature brings.”

LifeDeathTimeAcceptanceIntegrityGoals
Book:Meditations
Create image

“Casting aside other things, hold to the precious few; and besides bear in mind that every man lives only the present, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or is uncertain. Brief is man's life and small the nook of the earth where he lives; brief, too, is the longest posthumous fame, buoyed only by a succession of poor human beings who will very soon die and who know little of themselves, much less of someone who died long ago.”

LifeDeathPurposeTimeHistoryFameExistentialismStocism
Book:Meditations
Create image

“If souls survive death for all eternity, how can the heavens hold them all? Or for that matter, how can the earth hold all the bodies that have been buried in it? The answers are the same. Just as on earth, with the passage of time, decaying and transmogrified corpses make way for the newly dead, so souls released into the heavens, after a season of flight, begin to break up, burn, and be absorbed back into the womb of reason, leaving room for souls just beginning to fly. This is the answer for those who believe that souls survive death.”

IfsWayBelieveHas BeensSoulMatterReasonBodyEarthDeathHeavenAnswersRoomsBreakSeasonsEternityLeavingFlightBuriedPassagesWombCorpsesPassage Of Time
Book:The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of The Meditations
Create image

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

IfsWantLifeShouldHas BeensGodCareDeathReligionMemoriesGoneVirtueAtheismInspirational LifeIntegrityWorshipSuicideAtheistNobleWelcomeGood LifeVeganLoved OnesUnjustIf There Is A GodGod Is Not GreatReligion Today
Author:Marcus Aurelius
Create image

“Do not fear death, but welcome it, since it too comes from nature. For just as we are young and grow old, and flourish and reach maturity, have teeth and a beard and grey hairs, conceive, become pregnant, and bring forth new life, and all the other natural processes that follow the seasons of our existence, so also do we have death. A thoughtful person will never take death lightly, impatiently, or scornfully, but will wait for it as one of life's natural processes.”

PersonsYoungDeathGrowsWaitingProcessNaturalExistenceHairSeasonsTeethWelcomeMaturityThoughtfulPregnantGreyNew LifeFear Of DeathBeardDo Not FearGrey HairDo Not Fear Death
Author:Marcus Aurelius
Create image