Quotes from book
Meditations
Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy.
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
VI, 6
Variant: The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI
VI, 19
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI
“What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.”
VI, 54
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI
“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”
Μηκέθ᾽ ὅλως περὶ τοῦ οἷόν τινα εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα διαλέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ εἶναι τοιοῦτον.
X, 16
Variant: Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
III, 10
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book III
Context: Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.
“If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common.”
IV, 4 (as translated by ASL Farquharson)
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
Context: If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common. If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left undone is common. If this be so, law also is common; if this be so, we are citizens; if this be so, we are partakers in one constitution; if this be so, the Universe is a kind of Commonwealth.
“Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered”
VIII, 21
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Context: Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not even here do all agree, no, not any one with himself: and the whole earth too is a point.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX, 40
Source: VII, 8 (Penguin Classics edition of Meditations, translated by Maxwell Staniforth)
Variant: 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.
Source: Meditations
IV, 40
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
