10 Timeless Marcus Aurelius Quotes from Meditations (With Stoic Lessons for 2026)
Last updated: January 2026
10 Timeless Marcus Aurelius Quotes from Meditations (With Stoic Lessons for 2026)
Written almost 1,900 years ago, Meditations is still the #1 book recommended by CEOs, athletes, and philosophers. Here are the ten quotes that hit hardest in 2026 – and why thousands of people now keep a Marcus Aurelius bust on their desk as a physical reminder.
1. “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.”
Book 6.6 – Full text at MIT Classics
2026 lesson: You can’t control the newsfeed or the markets – only your reaction.
2. “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
Book 4.3 – MIT Classics
3. “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive.”
Book 2.1 – MIT Classics
4. “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”
Book 10.16 – MIT Classics
5. “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Book 4.49 – MIT Classics
6. “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Book 5.20 – MIT Classics
7. “Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
Book 7.67 – MIT Classics
8. “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
Book 7.22 – MIT Classics
9. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
Book 6.2 – MIT Classics
10. “Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.”
Book 7.8 – MIT Classics
