1
Make trial how the life of a good man succeeds with you, the life of one who is content with the lot appointed him by Providence
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7 quotes by Marcus Aurelius · clear filters
2
the mind can convert and change everything that impedes its activity into matter for its action; hindrance in its work becomes its real help, and every obstruction makes for its progress
3
Am I equipped for nothing but to lie among the bed-clothes and keep warm?
4
In rest you go beyond these limits, and beyond what is enough; but in action you do not fill the measure, and remain well within your powers.
5
Others, who love the art that they have made their own, exhaust themselves with labouring at it unwashed and unfed.
6
If you are beaten off, return again to the effort, and content yourself that your conduct is generally such as becomes a man.
7
each rational being can make every impediment in his way a proper matter for himself to act upon, and can use it for his guiding purpose, whatever it may be
Marcus Aureliusdisputed·The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (trans. George W. Chrystal)·1902
Attribution contested
This is the passage behind the slogan the obstacle is the way, which Marcus never wrote. That phrase is the title of a 2014 book, and the sentence usually quoted with it -- the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way -- is Gregory Hays's 2002 translation, still in copyright. The thought is genuinely his; the memorable English is not.