Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. … - Marcus Aurelius
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Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint."
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors (a term coined some 13 centuries later by Niccolò Machiavelli), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana (27 BC to 180), an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011) (CC BY)
Also Known As
Native Name:
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Alternative Names:
Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
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Marcus Annius Verus
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Marcus Catilius Severus Annius Verus
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Verissimus
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Marcus Aurelius Verus
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Antoninus
On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.
Consider all that you've gone through, all that you've survived. And that the story of your life is done, your assignment complete. How many good things have you seen? How much pain and pleasure have you resisted? How many honors have you declined? How many unkind people have you been kind to? (Hays translation)
It needs to realize that what happens to everyone—bad and good alike—is neither good nor bad. (Hays translation)
