Everything Is Bearable, Marcus Aurelius Quote Poster (in French)

The sky fills two thirds of the image and it is on fire. Scarlet clouds, purple streaks, a single tear of gold on the left, very low on the horizon. Below, the statue is cold, almost blue, lit from beneath like a monument photographed at dusk. The contrast is the subject: outside, chaos; seated in the middle, someone who has not moved.

Marcus Aurelius reigned from 161 to 180. His reign was a succession of trials: wars on the Danube, the revolt of a general he trusted, and above all the Antonine plague, which ravaged the Empire for fifteen years and took several of his children. It was in military camps, at night, in Greek, that he wrote for himself alone the notes we now call the Meditations. They were never meant to be read. That is what gives them their tone: a man talking to himself in order to hold on.

The idea carried by this poster is one of his constant footholds. Not that everything is easy, nor that pain does not exist. Rather, that the event and the judgment we pass on it are two separate things, and that the second belongs to us. Between what happens and the suffering we draw from it, there is a space, thin but real, where freedom lives. It remains to occupy it, and Marcus Aurelius never claims that is simple.

The quote is printed in French on the poster: « Tout ce qui arrive est supportable si tu le considères avec sagesse. » In English: “Everything that happens is bearable if you consider it with wisdom.”

Source of the quote. The text on this poster is a modern wording of Marcus Aurelius's thought. The closest authentic passage is in the Meditations, Book V, 18: nothing happens to anyone that they are not fitted by nature to bear.

Where to hang it. This is the most dramatic piece in the collection. The red sky is powerful and needs space around it: at 70x100 cm on a large clear wall, or 50x70 cm in a study or entryway. It goes well with white, anthracite grey or sand-beige walls, and with dark wood, leather and black metal. Do not pair it with the Epictetus poster on a red background: the two reds fight each other. A black frame is the obvious choice here, it contains the intensity of the sky. Dark wood also works. Avoid white and light wood.