Stoicism is everywhere online, and so are “Marcus Aurelius quotes”. He left one book, the Meditations: private notes to himself, written in Greek around 170–180 CE and never meant for publication. That makes checking easy. We searched all twelve books of George Long’s complete translation for the most shared lines. Several are not there at all, and many more are modern rewrites of something he really wrote.
Tags: No source not in the Meditations · Paraphrase a modern rewording of a real passage · Someone else written by another person. Real passages are quoted from George Long’s translation (1862), with book and section numbers. Other translations word things differently, so a line can be genuine in one and look “wrong” in another; the test is whether the idea and the passage exist. More on Marcus Aurelius’s life and ideas, and real Marcus Aurelius quotes.
“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
Paraphrase The most shared Marcus quote of all is not in the Meditations, but the idea is. Here is the passage behind it:
What he actually wrote
“If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it.”Meditations 8.47 (tr. George Long)
“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”
Someone else Said by Maximus, a fictional general, in the film Gladiator (2000). The real Marcus thought fame after death was worth very little:
What he actually wrote
“He who has a vehement desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon.”Meditations 4.19 (tr. George Long)
More: Philosophy at the Movies
“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.”
No source Shared on countless morning posts, and nowhere in the Meditations. His real morning advice is famously less sunny: prepare yourself for difficult people.
What he actually wrote
“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.”Meditations 2.1 (tr. George Long)
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
No source Not in the Meditations. It is sometimes defended as a loose version of a much shorter line, which says something different: that our experience of life is shaped by our judgements, not that there are no facts.
The real line it is pinned on
“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.”Meditations 4.3 (tr. George Long)
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by…”
No source A popular “wager” that circulates under his name, and is not in the Meditations. He did write about whether the gods exist, but his conclusion is Stoic, not a bet:
What he actually wrote
“But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil.”Meditations 2.11 (tr. George Long)
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
Paraphrase A modern rewording. The original image is more striking:
What he actually wrote
“Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”Meditations 5.16 (tr. George Long)
“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Paraphrase A free rendering of the same short line in 4.3: “life is opinion” (above).
These start from a genuine passage and add something he didn’t write.
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
Paraphrase The first half is his; the second half is a modern addition.
“… very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.”Meditations 7.67 (tr. George Long)
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
Paraphrase “Dwell on the beauty of life” is not in the Meditations; the stars are.
“Look round at the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going along with them.”Meditations 7.47 (tr. George Long)
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
Paraphrase Close to a real line, minus three important words: “according to nature”. For a Stoic, really living meant living by reason and virtue, not simply living fully.
“… but if thou shalt fear never to have begun to live according to nature.”Meditations 12.1 (tr. George Long)
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
Genuine, in a modern wording. Long has it as:
“The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.”Meditations 6.6 (tr. George Long)
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
Genuine; this is a modern translation. Long has it as:
“No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.”Meditations 10.16 (tr. George Long)
Genuine
“If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.”Meditations 12.17 (tr. George Long)
Short enough to fit on a phone screen, and his own words.
More misattributions: Quotes They Never Said, Philosophy at the Movies, Fake Chanakya Quotes, Fake Buddha Quotes.
The Meditations, tr. George Long (MIT Classics) · Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
