Marcus Aurelius
121 – 180
Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE) was Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. His Meditations, a private journal never intended for publication, records his daily efforts to live by Stoic principles: acceptance of what cannot be changed, focus on virtue and reason, and service to others.
Key works: Meditations
Top quotes by Marcus Aurelius
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
Read the full explanation →“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.”
Read the full explanation →“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.”
Read the full explanation →“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
Read the full explanation →“The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Read the full explanation →“Do not be ashamed to be helped; things do not always happen as you wish.”
Read the full explanation →“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
Read the full explanation →“Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death calls you.”
Read the full explanation →“A man's true wealth is the good he does in this world.”
Read the full explanation →“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
Read the full explanation →
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