Q0041

Marcus Aurelius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
Thinker Marcus Aurelius
School Stoicism
Source Meditations VIII.47
Theme Judgment
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Meditations VIII.47, within the tradition of Stoicism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of judgment, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Marcus Aurelius's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Marcus Aurelius. (n.d.). If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0041

MLA: Marcus Aurelius. “If you are distressed by anything external, it….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0041.

Chicago: Marcus Aurelius. “If you are distressed by anything external, it….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0041.

Same thinker

More from Marcus Aurelius

  1. Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the soul is dyed by its impressions.
  2. The universe is change; life is opinion.
  3. Begin the morning by saying to yourself: Today I shall meet the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant…
  4. Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
  5. What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee.

All quotations by Marcus Aurelius

Same theme

More on judgment

  1. It is not things that disturb people, but their judgments about things.
  2. Thinking is the habit of examining whatever happens to come to pass or to attract attention.
  3. Better a well-made head than a well-filled head.
  4. Nothing is miserable unless you think it so.
  5. The great method of ordering the world lies in discerning the times and gauging the situation.

Browse the judgment theme