“It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being.”
More from Marcus Aurelius on Ethics
“Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying anything that deserves to be despised.”
“If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.”
“The pride which is proud of want of pride is the most intolerable of all.”
Others on Ethics
Ayn Rand
9 quotes“Sacrifice is the surrender of that which you value in favor of which you dont”
Saint Augustine
8 quotes“Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicke...”
David Hume
7 quotes“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”
Dante
6 quotes“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”
Thomas Paine
4 quotes“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue but moderation in pri...”
Einstein
4 quotes“Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.”
Pope Benedict XVI
4 quotes“Purity of heart is what enables us to see.”
Confucius
3 quotes“Tsze-kung wished to dispense with the sacrifice of a sheep for the New Moon ceremony. The Master said, "You love the she...”
Immanuel Kant
3 quotes“...I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become universal law.”
Adam Smith
3 quotes“In the common degree of the moral, there is no virtue. Virtue is excellence.”
Percy Shelley
3 quotes“All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil.”
Alexander Pope
3 quotes“Order is heaven's first law.”