Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome from A.D. 161-180. He was regarded as a philosopher king and one of the last good emperors of Rome. He was an avid Stoic and practiced the philosophy regularly.

His private writings and thoughts still survive today and are known as the Meditations. These were never written with the intention of being seen by an audience and they offer a fascinating glimpse into the thoughts and principles of a man who was, at the time, the most powerful person on the planet.

The following are some quotes from Marcus and the Meditations that reflect the wisdom of the philosophy and the man himself.

" 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. "

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

" The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. "

" 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. "

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

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

" I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others. "

" The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. "

" When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural. "

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

If you enjoyed these quotes and would like to read more, I highly recommend the version of Meditations translated by Gregory Hays. It's a more modern translation that is very readable but still retains the spirit of the original work. It also has an introduction about the life of Marcus and the Stoic philosophy. Fantastic book, you can get a copy for like $10 last I checked.