Marc Aurèle
What is not up to you should not trouble you.
Misconceptions
Marcus Aurelius wrote the Meditations to teach his wisdom to the public.
They are notes to himself, often written on military campaign, in which he repeats his own principles. They were not meant to be read and were printed only in 1559. That is why they repeat themselves and follow no plan.
He wanted to restore the Republic and was murdered by his son Commodus (as in the film Gladiator).
No ancient source says he wanted to restore the Republic or that Commodus killed him. He made Commodus co-emperor in 177 and died on campaign in 180, most probably of illness. Only the historian Cassius Dio reports a rumour: his doctors are said to have hastened his death to please Commodus. In the Meditations, he thanks Severus for introducing him to Cato and Brutus, and to the idea of a state with the same law for all and of a kingship that respects above all the freedom of the subjects: an ideal of just rule, not a plan to hand power back to the Senate.
Marcus Aurelius persecuted the Christians.
Under his reign Christians were condemned (Justin in Rome around 165, the martyrs of Lyon in 177), under existing laws; no general edict of his is known. In the Meditations Christians appear only once, in a criticism of the way they go to their death, and several scholars think these words are a copyist's addition.
Being stoic means feeling nothing.
The Stoic wants to be free from the passions that disturb him (anger, fear), not from all affection. Marcus constantly speaks of loving people and bearing with them gently, and writes that "a good disposition is invincible" when it is genuine.