Quotes checked, by author
Marcus Aurelius: what is (and is not) in the Meditations
Each sentence below was searched in the twelve books of the Meditations, in one English edition and two French ones. The title never says more than the weakest verdict.
How we check
- The sentence is split into two fragments of four to six words, in English and in French.
- Each fragment is searched, normalized (case, apostrophes, punctuation, line breaks), in every public-domain edition we hold — the search is replayed by the build.
- A hit at the place the idea comes from, without the wording, is a paraphrase; a hit with the wording is attested.
- No hit anywhere gives “not found”, with the exact extent of what was searched; a documented earlier source gives “misattributed”.
- The title of a page never says more than the weakest verdict, and the edition’s own text is quoted whenever there is one.
By verdict
12 sentences checked
- Paraphrase
- 7
- Not found
- 2
- Misattributed
- 2
- Attested
- 1
| Sentence | Verdict | Page | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. | Paraphrase | Meditations, VI, 6 | Page → |
| Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good. | Attested | Meditations, IV, 17 | Page → |
| Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back. | Misattributed | in Long 1862 (12 books, 487 chapters) and, in French, Couat 1904 and Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire 1876 (12 books each) | Page → |
| Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. | Paraphrase | Meditations, X, 16 | Page → |
| It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. | Misattributed | in Long 1862 (12 books, 487 chapters) and, in French, Couat 1904 and Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire 1876 (12 books each) | Page → |
| The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. | Paraphrase | Meditations, V, 20 | Page → |
| Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the… | Paraphrase | Meditations, XII, 22 | Page → |
| You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find… | Not found | in Long 1862 (12 books, 487 chapters) and, in French, Couat 1904 and Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire 1876 (12 books each) | Page → |
| When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to… | Not found | in Long 1862 (12 books, 487 chapters) and, in French, Couat 1904 and Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire 1876 (12 books each) | Page → |
| The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. | Paraphrase | Meditations, V, 16 | Page → |
| The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. | Paraphrase | Meditations, IV, 3 | Page → |
| Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of… | Paraphrase | Meditations, VII, 67 | Page → |
Editions searched
What “not found” means depends on what was searched. These are the editions, with their real extent.
- Meditations — George Long, 1862 · 12 books, 487 chapters
- Meditations — Auguste Couat, 1904 · 12 books, 487 chapters (IV, 19–20 and VII, 47–48 merged by the translator)
- Meditations — Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, 1876 · 12 books, 487 chapters — second French edition, shown beside Couat
Marcus AureliusMeditationsAll quote checks
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