The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.
It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.
What we do in life ripples in eternity.
Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?'
Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together.
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.
Think of all the years passed by in which you said to yourself "I'll do it tomorrow," and how the gods have again and again granted you periods of grace of which you have not availed yourself. It is time to realize that you are a member of the Universe, that you are born of Nature itself, and to know that a limit has been set to your time. Use every moment wisely, to perceive your inner refulgence, or 'twill be gone and nevermore within your reach.
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.
Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.
Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.
A man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent self-examinations, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not that which he thinks and says and does.
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.
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.
One of the recurring themes in Marcus' handbook is leadership's responsibility to work intelligently with what it is given and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.
A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.
The most complete revenge is not to imitate the aggressor.
No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
Give yourself a gift: the present moment.
Adapt yourself to the life you have been given; and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you.
Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.
Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.
The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.
Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.
Past and future have no power over you. Just the present - and even that can be minimized.
How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.
Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.
If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
