Blog — Quotes
1 quote by Marcus Aurelius on the practice + detachment + meaning
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. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.
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. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.
Added in 2026
Appears in
Along the same lines
- Deathan essay
- The Fear of Missing Outan essay
- Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen…Epictetus
- Not a dancer but a wrestler: waiting, poised, and dug in, for sudden assaults.Marcus Aurelius
- Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.Marcus Aurelius
- The first step: Don't be anxious. Nature controls it all. And before long you'll be no one, nowh…Marcus Aurelius
- It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.Seneca
- The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them.…Marcus Aurelius
Added in 2026