20 Marcus Aurelius Quotes — Stoic Wisdom for Modern Life

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

Meditations, Book 6

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."

Meditations, Book 4

"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."

Meditations, Book 10

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."

Meditations

"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury."

Meditations, Book 6

"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."

Meditations

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

Meditations

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

Meditations, Book 7

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

Meditations

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, and do so with all your heart."

Meditations

"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."

Meditations

"If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it."

Meditations, Book 12

"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."

On controlling emotions

"Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect."

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