It's time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.
Verified
insightresilienceself-awarenessSource: Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book 12 (Gregory Hays translation, Modern Library, 2002)
Genuine Marcus Aurelius, but note this is specifically Gregory Hays's 2002 English rendering — the colloquial "dance like a puppet" is Hays's phrasing, not a literal or older translation, so the wording is translator-dependent and other translations read quite differently. I place it in Book 12, most likely section 19, though I am working from memory on the exact section number and have not confirmed it. Translator credit should be carried with the quote.
Truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you.
Attributed
relationshipsfriendshipSource: Meditations (Book 1, 17)
You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.
Verified
insightdeath-awarenessmortalityprioritiesmemento moriSource: Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book 2.11; this English wording from Gregory Hays's translation (Modern Library, 2002)
Genuine, from Meditations 2.11. The crisp modern phrasing is specifically Gregory Hays's 2002 translation; older translations render it very differently (Long: 'Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly'). Worth crediting the translator if the corpus surfaces translation credits.
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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.
Source: Meditations
I walk in Nature's way until I shall lie down and rest.
Source: Meditations
Gentleness is invincible.
Source: Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book 11.18 (c. 170–180 CE)
Genuine, from the long passage in Meditations 11.18 on how to respond to people who wrong you, which closes on the claim that gentleness or kindness cannot be defeated when it is sincere — Hays renders it 'Kindness is invincible, provided it's sincere'. Translations split between 'gentleness' and 'kindness', so the three-word form here is a compression of a conditional sentence: Marcus qualifies it with 'if it be genuine'. Attribution is sound; the aphoristic trimming drops that qualifier.
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Remember through how many thing you have already passed, and how many you have been able to endure.
Source: Meditations
Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
Source: Meditations
If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.
Verified
insightpainpowerjudgmentSource: Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book VIII, 47 (c. 170-180 CE)
Meditations VIII.47. George Long's translation reads 'If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.' The recorded text is that translation modernized in pronouns only; the sense and structure are exact.
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Perform every act as if it were your last.
Verified
creativityactiondeathsuccessfocusSource: Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book II, 5 (c. 170-180 CE)
Condensed from Meditations II.5, commonly rendered 'Perform every act in life as though it were thy last' or 'do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life.' A closely related formulation appears at II.11. Author and work are secure; the recorded line is a shortened translation.
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