I recently finished reading Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations,” and would like to share my favourite quotes from it. Hopefully one of these can help you as it has helped me.

• “To accept it without arrogance, to let it go with indifference.”
• “Instead of treating yourself with respect, you have entrusted your own happiness to the souls of others.”
• “Don’t ever forget these things: The nature of the world. My nature. How I relate to the world. What proportion of it I make up. That you are a part of nature, and no one can prevent you from speaking and acting in harmony with it, always.”
• “Be your own saviour while you can.”
• You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.”
• Then what should we work for? Only this: proper understanding; unselfish action; truthful speech.”
• “If it’s right to say or do it, then it’s the right thing for you to do or say.”
• “So it would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress.”
• “Nothing belongs to you but your flesh and blood.”
• “Change and flux constantly remake the world, just as the incessant progression of time remakes eternity.”
• “Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too.”
• “Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their minds.”
• “Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?”
• “No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. Like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, “No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my colour undiminished.””
• “To feel affection for people even when they make mistakes is uniquely human. You can do it, if you simply recognize: that they’re human too, that they act out of ignorance, against their will, and that you’ll both be dead before long. And, above all, that they haven’t really hurt you. They haven’t diminished your ability to choose.”
• “Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option: to accept this event with humility to treat this person as he should be treated to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in.”
• “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.”
• “And keep in mind too that pain often comes in disguise - as drowsiness, fever, loss of appetite… When you’re bothered by things like that, remind yourself: “I’m giving in to pain.””
• “Take care that you don’t treat inhumanity as it treats human beings.”
• “It’s quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it. Remember that.”
• “No one objects to what is useful to him. To be of use to others is natural. Then don’t object to what is useful to you - being of use.”
• “Remember that to change your mind and to accept correction are free acts too. The action is yours, based on your own will, your own decision - and your own mind.”
• “If it’s in your control, why do you do it? If it’s in someone else’s, then who are you blaming? Atoms? The gods? Stupid either way.”
• “This is what you deserve. You could be good today. But instead you choose tomorrow.”
• “Is there any reason why my soul should suffer and be degraded - miserable, tense, huddled, frightened? How could there be?”
• “If the problem is something in your own character, who’s stopping you from setting your mind straight? And if it’s that you’re not doing something you think you should be, why not just do it?”
• “Is it a sign of self-respect to regret nearly everything you do?”
• “That’s what the outpouring - the diffusion - of thought should be like: not emptied out, but extended.”
• “People exist for one another. You can instruct or endure them.”
• “To do harm is to do yourself harm. To do an injustice is to do yourself an injustice - it degrades you.”
• “Concrete objects can pull free of the earth more easily than humans can escape humanity.”
• “Leave other people’s mistakes where they lie.”
• “Endless suffering - all from not allowing the mind to do its job. Enough.”
• “If they’ve made a mistake, correct them gently and show them where they went wrong. If you can’t do that, then the blame lies with you.”
• “To stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.”
• “Stop whatever you’re doing for a moment an ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won’t be able to do this anymore?”
• “Learn to ask of all actions, “Why are they doing that?” Starting with your own.”
• “None of us is forbidden to pursue our own good.”
• “When you lose your temper, or even feel irritated: that human life is very short. Before long all of us will be laid out side by side.”