Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Freedom

Quotes

• Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:

  “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

• “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”

  Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul.

• “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.”

  VII, 11.

• “From Apollonius , true liberty, and unvariable steadfastness, and not to regard anything at all, though never so little, but right and reason: and always..that it was possible for the same man to be both vehement and remiss: a man not subject to be vexed, and offended with the incapacity of his scholars and auditors in his lectures and expositions.”

  I, 5

• “Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love. (Hays translation)”

  I, 9

• “To change your mind and to follow him who sets you right is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.”

  Meditations, Book VIII | Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects thy error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error. (Long translation) VIII, 16

• “There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return.”

  Meditations, Book II | II, 4