How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.
- Topic: Awareness, Perception, Practice, Thinking
- Location: Hawaii, Maui
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Marcus Aurelius
It never ceases to amaze me: We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.
Accept things to which fate binds you, love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.
To offend a strong man, tell him a lie. To offend a weak man, tell him the truth.
Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even dearth is one of the things that Nature wills.
Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.
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We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose.
Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so act toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth.
We must each lead a way of life with self-awareness and compassion, to do as much as we can. Then, whatever happens we will have no regrets.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.
As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.
A problem well-put is half-solved.
For all men strive to grasp what they do not know, while none strive to grasp what they already know; and all strive to discredit what they do not excel in, while none strive to discredit what they do excel in. This is why there is chaos.
It is an ecological, theological, and biological reality: The more we are in tune with eternal nature, the more we will be able to hear the still small voice within and have explosions of inspirational insight.
The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.
To be able to practice five things everywhere under the heaven constitutes perfect virtue. . . gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.
To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.
Emotions are inherent in your nature, but their content is dictated by your mind.
I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.
I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.
Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.