Meditations is one of the most famous books in history. Here are some quotes from the book:

“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”

“To stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.”

“And how trivial the things we want so passionately are.”

 “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”

 “If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining.”

“You have to assemble your life yourself – action by action.”

“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.”

“It’s unfortunate that this has happened. No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it – not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.”

“Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.”

“To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.”

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.

“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”

“Other people’s mistakes? Leave them to their makers.”

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work – as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?

So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?”

“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”

“Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.”

“Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?”

“This is the mark of perfection of character – to spend each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, laziness, or any pretending.”

“Penetrate inwards into men’s leading principles, and thou wilt see what judges thou art afraid of, and what kind of judges they are of themselves.”

“If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.”

“To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.”

“You could be good today. But instead you choose tomorrow.”

“Concentrate every minute like a Roman – like a man – on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions.

Yes, you can – if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.”

“Or is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of all those applauding hands. The people who praise us – how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region in which it all takes place. The whole earth a point in space and most of it uninhabited.”

The language we use to describe things imputes value to those things. We often embellish our language with superlatives to help make our choices of what to buy, wear, eat, or drink seem much better than they really are. As emperor, Marcus Aurelius could have the fines Falernian wine at his table at any meal – but he preferred to remind himself it was only grape juice. As emperor, he was the only Roman allowed to wear a purple cloak, but he took pains to point out that his cloak was like any other, just dyed with shelfish blood to produce the purple hue.

“Just as when meat or other foods are set before us think, this is a dead fish, a dead bird or pig; and also, this fine wine is only the juice of a bunch of grapes, this purple-edged robe just sheep’s wool dyed in a bit of blood from a shellfish; or of sex, that is only rubbing private parts together followed by a spasmic discharge – in the same way our impressions grab actual events and permeate them, so we see them as they really are.”