“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
Write your response
Take five minutes with it. No account needed to start, and nobody else can read what you write.
Respond to this passageWhere this comes from
Marcus Aurelius’ private notebooks, written for no audience but himself.
Marcus Aurelius. Roman emperor from 161 to 180 CE, and the last of the emperors remembered as the "Five Good Emperors". The notebooks we call Meditations were written in Greek, largely on campaign, and were never meant to be read by anyone else — which is why they read as instruction to himself rather than argument aimed at a reader.
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“Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life, but instead ask yourself, “What is there in this present moment that is intolerable?””
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Does anything pass into oblivion? No, not really. It is still right here with us.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations