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Who really said it

The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer

Written by Marcus Aurelius 121–180 AD · Roman emperor & Stoic philosopher
Verified Free to reuse

Confirmed word for word at Meditations, Book VI, §6, in George Long’s translation — the sentence sits in the 1864 Ticknor and Fields printing exactly as it circulates today. Marcus wrote in Koine Greek, so the memorable English is Long’s; other translators render the same line very differently.

Last verified 4 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book VI, §6, trans. George Long (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864). Via quotle.info

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Provenance

The source

Work
Meditations (Ta eis heauton), Book VI, §6
Written
c. 170–180 AD, in Koine Greek
Translation
George Long — The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus (first published 1862; this printing Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864)
Status
Wording confirmed in the printed 1864 edition and in two independent transcriptions

5. The reason which governs knows what its own disposition is, and what it does, and on what material it works.
6. The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.
7. Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social act to another social act, thinking of God. Book VI, §§5–7

Long’s Meditations is a chain of numbered entries, and §6 sits between two unrelated thoughts — it was already a standalone one-liner before the internet made it one.

Scanned printed edition
Read the 1864 Ticknor and Fields printing on the Internet Archive
Meditations, Book VI, in George Long's translation (Wikisource)

How we checked

  • Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ places the thought at Meditations VI, 6 — rendered there as “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” That fixes the location; it does not settle the wording.
  • The circulating English traces to George Long. Wikisource’s transcription of his Book VI ↗ gives §6 as “The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like [the wrong-doer],” and Standard Ebooks ↗ prints the same sentence unbracketed.
  • Print confirmation: in the 1864 Ticknor and Fields edition ↗, §6 appears without brackets, and Long quotes the same line back in his own introductory essay — “The best way of avenging thyself,” says the emperor, “is not to become like the wrong doer.”
  • Translations diverge sharply from here. A. S. L. Farquharson’s 1944 version ↗ renders the identical passage “The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.”
Public domain

The Koine Greek original has been out of copyright for centuries, and the English that matters here — George Long’s translation, first published in 1862 and confirmed in this exact wording in the 1864 Boston printing — is comfortably pre-1931 and therefore public domain in the United States. Later renderings of the same passage are separate works: Farquharson’s 1944 translation and modern twenty-first-century versions are not covered by that status, so quote Long’s words if you need free text.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The attribution is right — the sentence is a translator’s

This is the rare famous-Stoic quote that survives scrutiny: the passage really is in the Meditations, in the book and section people cite. What does not survive scrutiny is the idea that these are Marcus Aurelius’s words. He wrote one compressed Greek clause; the English everyone shares belongs to a nineteenth-century classicist, and the popular variants belong to nobody in particular.

George Long (1800–1879), translator Uncredited

Marcus wrote in Koine Greek. “The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer” is Long’s English, printed under his name in the 1864 Ticknor and Fields edition ↗. Some printings of Long even bracket [the wrong-doer] to flag it as supplied — the Greek names no one.

Quote aggregators No source given

The form that dominates social media is “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” BrainyQuote runs it under Marcus Aurelius ↗ with no book, no chapter and no translator named. It is a looser rendering of the same passage, not a distinct saying — but nothing on those pages lets you check that.

George Herbert Often filed together

“Living well is the best revenge” gets shelved next to this one under the same heading, but it is not from the Meditations. Quote Investigator traces it ↗ to proverb no. 524 in George Herbert’s Outlandish Proverbs (1640) — and its investigation does not mention Marcus Aurelius at all.

The thought is genuinely Marcus Aurelius’s, at Meditations VI, §6 ↗. Only the English is up for grabs.

Context

Why it mattered

Marcus was writing to himself, in Greek, mostly on campaign — Wikipedia dates the composition of the twelve books to roughly 170–180 AD ↗, years he spent planning wars rather than writing philosophy. Book VI is a run of one-line reminders, and this is one of them: not advice about how to punish an enemy, but a note-to-self about what an enemy can do to you.

The Stoic move is quietly aggressive. It concedes that you want revenge, and then redefines winning: the injury that actually lasts is the one that changes your character. Retaliate in kind and the wrongdoer has recruited you. Refuse, and there is nothing left for them to have taken.

The line is genuinely his. The words are a Victorian Englishman’s.

How much does the translation change it?

The Greek here is famously compressed — roughly “best way of defending yourself: not to become like them.” There is no noun for the wrongdoer at all, which is why some printings of Long’s translation put [the wrong-doer] in square brackets, marking it as supplied English rather than something Marcus wrote.

Compare the range. Long (1860s): “The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.” Farquharson (1944) ↗: “The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.” Wikiquote’s sourced entry for VI, 6 ↗: “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” Same thought, three different sentences — and only one of them is the one people put on posters.

Explore

Filed under

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

Character Wisdom Justice

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.

Meditations, Book VI (George Long translation)en.wikisource.org

Full transcription of Long’s Book VI; §6 reads “not to become like [the wrong-doer],” brackets and all.
The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus (1864)archive.org

Scanned Ticknor and Fields printing of Long’s translation — the printed page where §6 appears.
Meditations, Book VI (Standard Ebooks)standardebooks.org

Clean modern typesetting of Long’s text, useful for reading §6 in the run of entries around it.
Marcus Aurelius — sourced quotationsen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s sourced section pins the thought to VI, 6, in the wording “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
Meditations 6.6, Farquharson translation (1944)en.wikisource.org

A very different English rendering of the identical passage — the clearest demonstration of translation drift.
Quote Origin: Living Well Is the Best Revengequoteinvestigator.com

Quote Investigator on the other famous “best revenge” line — George Herbert, 1640, and nothing to do with Marcus Aurelius.

The true author

Who was Marcus Aurelius?

Marcus Aurelius

121–180 AD · Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher

Marcus Aurelius ruled Rome from 161 to 180 AD, the last of the emperors later called the Five Good Emperors. The book we know as Meditations was not written for us — its Greek title, Ta eis heauton, means roughly “things to himself,” and it reads like a private notebook kept during years of frontier campaigning. That is part of why the entries are so short: he was reminding himself of things, not arguing them for an audience.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Chicago

Marcus Aurelius. The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus. Translated by George Long. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864. Book VI, §6. (Long’s translation was first published in 1862.)

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