“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
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Author detail
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers. During his reign, the empire defeated a revitalized Parthian Empire; Aurelius' general Avidius Cassius sacked the capital Ctesiphon in 164. Aurelius fought the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians with success during the Marcomannic Wars, but the threat of the Germanic Tribes began to represent a troubling reality for the empire. A revolt in the east led by Avidius Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed immediately. Marcus Aurelius' work Meditations, written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. It serves as an example of how Aurelius approached the Platonic ideal of a philosopher-king and how he symbolized much of what was best about Roman civilization.
Quotes
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“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
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“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
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“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
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“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
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“Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.”
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“Here is a rule to remember when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, "This is a misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."”
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“Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.”
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“Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate.”
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“If thou workest at that which is before thee ... expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature, and with heroic truth in every word and soun...”
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“Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure.”
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“Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?”
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“There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.”
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“A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.”
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“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
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“Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.”
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“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
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“Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.”
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“Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.”
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“The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.”
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“Without a purpose, nothing should be done.”
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