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Who are the Stoic Founders: Marcus Aurelius + his best quotes
Mar
Marcus Aurelius was born nearly two millennia ago (121-180) and was a leader and one of the most important figures of Stoicism. He is also known as one of the last in a line of five emperors who ruled Rome with humanity, authority and competence.
He was born in a well-established family but nothing at the time indicated that he would one day become an Emperor. He was an earnest young man who enjoyed boxing, wrestling and hunting.
When he became a teenager, Hadrian, the emperor of the time, was nearing death and childless. The first successor he picked died suddenly. He then chose Antoninus who was a childless senator, and Hadrian made it a condition that he would adopt Marcus.
After Hadrian’s death, Marcus was next in line to become emperor. He had the privilege of studying under Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto. He would also work as consul twice thus receiving a practical and valuable education.
In 161 after Antoninus died, Marcus became the Emperor of the Roman Empire and ruled for two decades until his death. He held one of the most powerful positions in the world. Nothing was off limits including temptations and indulgences. And yet Marcus proved to be worthy of this privilege. He led his empire under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. Indeed for Marcus, the stoic philosophy guided to help him deal with the stresses of leading an empire.
Later in his life, he wrote his Meditations, embracing the studies of Stoicism and its teachers such as Ruticus and Epictetus. This document contained the private thoughts of the world’s most powerful man as he advises himself on how to make good on the obligations and responsibilities of his positions. It is a text on personal ethics, self-discipline, humility, strength and self-actualisation.
Marcus Aurelius left behind many lessons in stoicism. Here are three examples to illustrate his philosophy:
- Learn to practice the virtues you can show. Instead of focusing on what we cannot do, we need to focus on our potential and our capacity for virtuous action.
- Draw strength from people in our lives and the role models that inspire us
- Focus on the present. Don’t spend too much time imagining worst-case scenarios for the future.
Marcus Aurelius quotes
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
― Marcus Aurelius , Meditations“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“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.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love …”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
