Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
— Meditations
Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. A member of the Nerva, Antonine dynasty, he was the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145 and 161.
He was the son of the praetor Marcus Annius Verus and Domitia Calvilla, and was related by marriage to the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. His father died when he was three, and he was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather. After Hadrian named Antoninus Pius as his heir, Antoninus in turn adopted Marcus, who became heir to the throne when Antoninus became emperor in 138. His Meditations is his most quoted work in our library.
He was the son of the praetor Marcus Annius Verus and Domitia Calvilla, and was related by marriage to the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. His father died when he was three, and he was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather. After Hadrian named Antoninus Pius as his heir, Antoninus in turn adopted Marcus, who became heir to the throne when Antoninus became emperor in 138. His Meditations is his most quoted work in our library.
Most quoted works
- Meditations 106
- The Emperor's Handbook 2
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
— Meditations
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
— Meditations
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
— Meditations
Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.
— Meditations
Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.
— The Emperor's Handbook
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
— Meditations
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
— Meditations
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
— Meditations
Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
— Meditations
We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.
— Meditations
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
— Meditations
Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.
— Meditations
Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.
— Meditations
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
— Meditations
The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.
— Meditations
Even the least of our activities ought to have some end in view.
— Meditations
For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.
— Meditations
Nothing is more scandalous than a man that is proud of his humility.
— Meditations
How good it is, when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this the dead body of a bird or pig.
— Meditations
When you are disturbed by events and lose your serenity, quickly return to yourself and don't stay upset longer than the experience lasts; for you'll have more mastery over your inner harmony by continually returning to it.
— Meditations
Think not so much of what you lack as of what you have: but of the things that you have, select the best, and then reflect on how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.
— Meditations
All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.
— Meditations
I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.
— Meditations