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

Not found

No. It is not in Aurelius’s works, and who first wrote it is not known.

The closest real passage, shown below, is found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation (1862); the shared line is not in it.

Closest passage: Meditations (180), Book 8, section 47, opening (a related genuine passage, not the circulating sentence)

Researched by AI; closest passage located by program on 31 October 2026. Entry updated 22 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check

Where you would expect it

The closest real passage: Meditations, Book 8, section 47, opening (a related genuine passage, not the circulating sentence). The shared line is not in it.

¶346 en¶400 el

[…] If then there happens to each thing both what is usual and natural, why shouldst thou complain? For the common nature brings nothing which may not be borne by thee.

Ἀνθρώπῳ οὐδενὶ συμβαίνειν τι δύναται ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνθρωπικὸν σύμπτωμα, οὐδὲ βοὶ ὃ οὐκ ἔστι βοικόν, οὐδὲ ἀμπέλῳ ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀμπελικόν, οὐδὲ λίθῳ ὃ οὐκ ἔστι λίθου ἴδιον. εἰ οὖν ἑκάστῳ συμβαίνει ὃ καὶ εἴωθε καὶ πέφυκε, τί ἂν δυσχεραίνοις; οὐ γὰρ ἀφόρητόν σοι ἔφερεν ἡ κοινὴ φύσις.

¶347 en¶401 el

English, George Long, 1862

If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgement now.¹ But if anything in thy own disposition gives thee pain, who hinders thee from correcting thy opinion? […]

Greek, the original

Εἰ μὲν διά τι τῶν ἐκτὸς λυπῇ, οὐκ ἐκεῖνό σοι ἐνοχλεῖ, ἀλλὰ τὸ σὸν περὶ αὐτοῦ κρῖμα, τοῦτο δὲ ἤδη ἐξαλεῖψαι ἐπὶ σοί ἐστιν. εἰ δὲ λυπεῖ σέ τι τῶν ἐν τῇ σῇ διαθέσει, τίς ὁ κωλύων διορθῶσαι τὸ δόγμα; ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ εἰ λυπῇ ὅτι οὐχὶ τόδε τι ἐνεργεῖς ὑγιές σοι φαινόμενον, τί οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἐνεργεῖς ἢ λυπῇ;—ἀλλὰ ἰσχυρότερόν τι ἐνίσταται.—μὴ οὖν λυποῦ· οὐ γὰρ παρὰ σὲ ἡ αἰτία τοῦ μὴ ἐνεργεῖσθαι.—ἀλλὰ οὐκ ἄξιον ζῆν μὴ ἐνεργουμένου τούτου.—ἄπιθι οὖν ἐκ τοῦ ζῆν εὐμενής, ᾗ καὶ ὁ ἐνεργῶν ἀποθνῄσκει, ἅμα ἵλεως τοῖς ἐνισταμένοις.

¶348 en¶402 el

Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, when self-collected it is satisfied with itself, if it does nothing which it does not choose to do, even if it resist from mere obstinacy. […]

Μέμνησο ὅτι ἀκαταμάχητον γίνεται τὸ ἡγεμονικόν, ὅταν εἰς ἑαυτὸ συστραφὲν ἀρκεσθῇ ἑαυτῷ, μὴ ποιοῦν τι ὃ μὴ θέλει, κἂν ἀλόγως παρατάξηται. τί οὖν, ὅταν καὶ μετὰ λόγου καὶ περιεσκεμμένως κρίνῃ περί τινος; διὰ τοῦτο ἀκρόπολίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλευθέρα παθῶν διάνοια· οὐδὲν γὰρ ὀχυρώτερον ἔχει ἄνθρωπος, ἐφ’ ὃ καταφυγὼν ἀνάλωτος λοιπὸν ἂν εἴη. ὁ μὲν οὖν μὴ ἑωρακὼς τοῦτο ἀμαθής, ὁ δὲ ἑωρακὼς καὶ μὴ καταφεύγων ἀτυχής.

¶349 en¶403 el

Say nothing more to thyself than what the first appearances report. Suppose that it has been reported to thee that a certain person speaks ill of thee. […]

Μηδὲν πλέον σαυτῷ λέγε ὧν αἱ προηγούμεναι φαντασίαι ἀναγγέλλουσιν. ἤγγελται ὅτι ὁ δεῖνά σε κακῶς λέγει. ἤγγελται τοῦτο· τὸ δέ, ὅτι βέβλαψαι, οὐκ ἤγγελται. βλέπω ὅτι νοσεῖ τὸ παιδίον. βλέπω· ὅτι δὲ κινδυνεύει, οὐ βλέπω. οὕτως οὖν μένε ἀεὶ ἐπὶ τῶν πρώτων φαντασιῶν καὶ μηδὲν αὐτὸς ἔνδοθεν ἐπίλεγε καὶ οὐδέν σοι γίνεται· μᾶλλον δὲ ἐπίλεγε ὡς γνωρίζων ἕκαστα τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ συμβαινόντων.

shared as

A gap the length of the shared sentence, which is not in the text.²

Where it comes from

No source for these exact sentences was established. The complete George Long English Meditations was searched for ‘power over your mind’, ‘not outside events’, ‘realize this’, ‘realise this’ and ‘find strength’, without a match; the Greek and Long passages at 4.3, 7.2 and 8.47 were compared. They offer parallels, not a documented history of this wording. Wikiquote reports a credit in Marc Woods’s Personal Best (2006), p. 195; the book page could not be viewed, so this earliest lead remains secondary. The 2014 Eloquent JavaScript epigraph was checked on the author’s PDF page image. Augustine’s 2017 investigation proposes 4.3 but provides no intermediate wording establishing descent. The coiner and first attribution remain unknown; apocryphal here concerns the unsupported exact quotation, not a denial of its thematic resemblance to Marcus.

How it travelled

2006Earliest found · credited to Marcus AureliusWikiquote reports the sentence credited to Marcus Aurelius in Marc Woods’s Personal Best; this is the earliest dated lead found, not an independently inspected page or an established first appearance.Marc Woods, Personal Best: 10 Lessons to Help You Achieve Your True Potential (Wiley, 2006), p. 195 (according to Wikiquote). Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2014Spread · credited to Marcus AureliusMarijn Haverbeke uses the saying as the epigraph to chapter 14, Handling Events, crediting Marcus Aurelius and Meditations without a section or translator.Marijn Haverbeke, Eloquent JavaScript, second edition (2014), chapter 14, Handling Events, author’s online PDF, p. 227 (PDF page 238). Checked on a page scan. Source
24 March 2017SpreadZachary G. Augustine repeats the saying while investigating his own earlier use of it, and proposes 4.3 as a possible source without locating this wording in a translation.Zachary G. Augustine, Investigating the source of the the quote, Medium, 24 March 2017. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

In context

The modern saying appears as an epigraph credited to Marcus and Meditations at the opening of the chapter on handling events in Eloquent JavaScript. No book or section of Meditations is supplied there. The genuine passage shown alongside it is Marcus’s reminder to himself in 8.47 about revising a judgment that causes distress.

What it says

The circulating advice locates strength in the distinction between one’s response and external circumstances. The related ancient passage speaks more specifically of the judgment by which an external event becomes distressing.

Often misread

A recognisably Stoic theme is not evidence for these particular words. Treating it as an exact translation conceals the absence of an identified translator and passage, and turns the ability to reconsider a judgment into a blanket promise of power over the mind.

Use with care

Do not cite the circulating wording as Marcus’s exact words. The Greek and George Long text displayed here belong to the related passage 8.47, not to an original of the meme.

Use this instead

“If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgement now.”

Meditations (180), Book 8, section 47, opening (a related genuine passage, not the circulating sentence).

Topics

Freedom, Power, Wisdom

Related quotes

Do not try to find the past again in the future. André Gide
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (not found) Mahatma Gandhi
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Dr. Seuss
Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. (misattributed) Ralph Waldo Emerson
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. (misattributed) Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sources

Cite it

“You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” Attributed to Marcus Aurelius. No. It is not in Aurelius’s works, and who first wrote it is not known. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/you-have-power-over-your-mind-not-outside-events/ (checked 22 October 2026).

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Checked by people

People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.