Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

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

Not Marcus Aurelius — a modern paraphrase Marcus Aurelius 121–180 AD · Roman emperor & Stoic philosopher
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

This exact wording appears in none of Marcus Aurelius’s writings. Fact-checkers and Stoic scholars trace it to a modern paraphrase that loosely echoes Meditations 2.15 (“all is but opinion”) — but the seed thought is stretched into a subjective relativism Marcus, a Stoic rather than a skeptic, would not have endorsed. Historian and Marcus Aurelius biographer Donald Robertson bluntly calls it “a fake quote”.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed — copy with the correction

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth” Misattributed to Marcus Aurelius. This exact wording appears in none of his works; it is a modern paraphrase loosely based on Meditations 2.15 (“all is but opinion”). Verified by Quotle.info.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Marcus Aurelius. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Marcus Aurelius — Roman emperor & Stoic philosopher. Theme: "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where this line really comes from

Claimed source
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Closest genuine passage
Meditations 2.15 — “Remember that all is but opinion”
Actual status
Modern paraphrase / misattribution — not in the text
Translation
2.15 shown from Meric Casaubon’s 1634 English rendering (public domain)

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

The genuine line it distantly echoes is Meditations 2.15: “Remember that all is but opinion and conceit, for those things are plain and apparent, which were spoken unto Monimus the Cynic.” Marcus’s point was that our judgements about things, not the things themselves, disturb us — not that facts and truth do not exist.

PolitiFact: No, Marcus Aurelius didn’t say this

How we verified this

  • PolitiFact rated the attribution “False”, quoting philosopher Dirk Baltzly — who called the wording “just vaguely possible” as a creative translation but concluded “I’d call BS on that quote.”
  • Check Your Fact found no occurrence in his works; biographer Donald Robertson said “That’s a fake quote” and Daily Stoic author Stephen Hanselman called it a loose paraphrase.
  • Wikiquote editors trace the wording to a paraphrasing website, noting it renders only three Greek words (“all is opinion”) from 2.15, with related ideas at 12.8, 12.22 and 12.26.
  • Modern Stoicism shows the paraphrase reverses Marcus’s meaning: he held reason can objectively judge, not that all perspectives are equally valid.

The exact wording is an anonymous modern paraphrase with no identifiable author, publication, or date, so no copyright status can be asserted for it. The genuine passage it echoes — Meditations 2.15 — is ancient and long in the public domain, and the Casaubon (1634) and 19th-century English translations shown here are also public domain; but that says nothing about the modern paraphrase itself.

Fact-check

A paraphrase mistaken for the man

This is a textbook “magnet-name” misattribution: a modern, share-friendly line pinned on antiquity’s most quotable Stoic. The words are not in the Meditations or anywhere else in his writings.

Marcus Aurelius fabricated wording

The exact sentence appears in none of his works. Wikiquote traces it to a paraphrasing website that inflated three Greek words of Meditations 2.15 into two full sentences.

Marcus Aurelius reverses his view

The paraphrase reads as subjective relativism — every perspective equally valid. But Marcus was a Stoic, not a skeptic: as Modern Stoicism explains, he held that reason can objectively judge, and that facts exist but should not disturb us.

The genuine seed is Meditations 2.15 — “Remember that all is but opinion” — which is about mastering our judgements, not about denying that truth exists (Casaubon translation, Gutenberg).

Context

Why the distinction matters

The paraphrase is popular precisely because it sounds like liberating wisdom: nothing you’re told is fact, nothing you see is truth. But that is closer to the modern slogan “there are no facts, only interpretations” (a line associated with Nietzsche’s notebooks) than to Stoicism.

Marcus’s actual teaching runs the other way: external things are real, but our opinions about them are what cause distress — so we should discipline the judgement, not dissolve the facts. Flattening his Stoicism into “everything is just perspective” loses the whole point of the Meditations.

“Remember that all is but opinion” — about judgement, not the denial of truth.

The genuine passage in full

Meditations 2.15 (Casaubon, 1634): “Remember that all is but opinion and conceit, for those things are plain and apparent, which were spoken unto Monimus the Cynic.”

Related judgement-focused passages the fact-checkers cite include 4.7 (“Do away with the judgement, and the notion ‘I have been harmed’ is done away with”) and Wikiquote’s pointers to 12.8, 12.22 and 12.26.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth Doubt Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

PolitiFact fact-checkpolitifact.com

Rates the attribution False; consults three philosophy professors including Dirk Baltzly.
Check Your Factcheckyourfact.com

Biographer Donald Robertson calls it “a fake quote”; found nowhere in his works.
Wikiquote: Talk:Marcus Aureliusen.wikiquote.org

Editors trace the wording to a paraphrasing site and map it to Meditations 2.15, 12.8, 12.22, 12.26.
Modern Stoicism: Did the Stoics Really Say That?modernstoicism.com

Thomas Colligan explains why the relativist paraphrase contradicts genuine Stoic doctrine.
Meditations (full text, Casaubon trans.)gutenberg.org

Public-domain English Meditations; Book 2.15 gives the genuine “all is but opinion” passage.
10 Definitely Fake Marcus Aurelius Quotesmedium.com

Philosopher Gregory Sadler catalogues widely-circulated fabrications pinned on Marcus Aurelius.

The name behind the quote

Who was Marcus Aurelius?

Marcus Aurelius

121–180 AD · Roman emperor & Stoic philosopher

Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and the last of the “Five Good Emperors.” His private notebook, the Meditations, written in Greek during his military campaigns, is a foundational text of Stoic philosophy. Because he is a byword for calm wisdom, he is one of the internet’s most magnetic targets for feel-good quotes he never wrote — this line among them.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary reference

Angie Drobnic Holan et al., “No, Marcus Aurelius didn’t say this about opinions and facts,” PolitiFact, 26 September 2019. Genuine echo: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.15, trans. Meric Casaubon (1634).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/everything-we-hear-is-an-opinion-not-a-fact-everything-we

Copied