Marcus Aurelius 121 – 180
Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors. He is remembered as much for his philosophical writing as for his rule, which spanned wars on the Danube frontier and a devastating plague. His Meditations, composed in Greek as private notes to himself, articulate a Stoic ethic of duty, self-discipline, and acceptance of nature. The work was not intended for publication but has become a foundational text of Stoicism. His reign closed the Pax Romana of the Antonine era.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Roman
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Stoicism, Hellenistic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
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Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
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Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”
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Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
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Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
“Begin each day by telling yourself: today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness — all of them due to the offenders' ignorance of what is good or evil.”
Quotes that are not actually from Marcus Aurelius
These lines are widely circulated as Marcus Aurelius, but they do not appear in Marcus Aurelius's works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“Death smiles at us all; all a man can do is smile back.”
This line is from the screenplay of the 2000 film Gladiator, in which the character of Marcus Aurelius is fictionalised. It does not appear in the historical Meditations or in any other surviving writing by Marcus Aurelius.
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“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.”
Although widely circulated online as Marcus Aurelius, this passage has not been located in any standard translation of the Meditations. Its earliest verifiable appearances are in 20th-century English-language compilations and the actual author is unknown.