Blog — Quotes
2 quotes by Marcus Aurelius on detachment + self-improvement
Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do.
Self-indulgence means tying it to things that happen to you.
Sanity means tying it to your own actions.
Whatever this is that I am, it is flesh and a little spirit and an intelligence. Throw away your books; stop letting yourself be distracted. That is not allowed. Instead, as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. A mess of blood, pieces of bone, a woven tangle of nerves, veins, arteries. Consider what the spirit is: air, and never the same air, but vomited out and gulped in again every instant. Finally, the intelligence. Think of it this way: You are an old man. Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.
Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do.
Self-indulgence means tying it to things that happen to you.
Sanity means tying it to your own actions.
Added in 2026
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Added in 2026
Whatever this is that I am, it is flesh and a little spirit and an intelligence. Throw away your books; stop letting yourself be distracted. That is not allowed. Instead, as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. A mess of blood, pieces of bone, a woven tangle of nerves, veins, arteries. Consider what the spirit is: air, and never the same air, but vomited out and gulped in again every instant. Finally, the intelligence. Think of it this way: You are an old man. Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.
Added in 2026
Appears in
Along the same lines
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- Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.Marcus Aurelius
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- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts t…William Arthur Ward
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- Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your me…Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
- The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with you…Heraclitus
Added in 2026