1,875 Year-Old Life Lessons From a Roman Emperor (Marcus Aurelius)

“Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them.” —Marcus Aurelius

The most striking discovery from reading Meditations, a collection of writings by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, was just how much humans still struggle to answer the same life questions nearly 2,000 years later…

Marcus Aurelius studied Stoicism, a philosophy recently reemerging in popularity thanks in particular to successful author Ryan Holiday, and his best selling books, The Daily Stoic, and, The Obstacle is the Way.

The questions addressed in Meditations include metaphysical and ethical ones:

“Why are we here?”

“How should we live our lives?”

“How can we ensure that we do what is right?”

“How can we protect ourselves against the stresses and pressures of daily life?”

“How should we deal with pain and misfortune?”

“How can we live with the knowledge that someday we will no longer exist?”

To fully understand Marcus’s answers to these questions, one must read the full text from Meditations, as Marcus’s writings and thoughts address each of these questions sporadically.

However, one major theme in Meditations, is Marcus reminding us over and over, “that we were made, not for ourselves, but for others, and our nature is fundamentally unselfish.” And, “in our relationships with others we must work for their collective good, while treating them justly and fairly as individuals.”

Understanding the Stoic worldview is to believe that the world is organized in a rational and coherent way controlled by an all-pervading force the Stoics refer to as logos.

Logos basically refers to rational, connected thought and operates both in individuals and in the universe as a whole. Logos, when applied to the universe is synonymous with “nature,” “Providence,” or “God.”

With this brief background, below are some of my favorite quotes I underlined when reading Meditations.

Also, here is a link to 67 Marcus Aurelius Quotes That Can Make You Successful.

“People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time—even when hard at work.”
“But death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful—and hence neither good nor bad.”
“The present is the same for everyone.”
“If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back ay moment—If you can embrace this without fear or expectation—can find fulfillment in what you’re doing now, as Nature intended, and is superhuman truthfulness (every work, every utterance)—then your life will be happy.”
“Our own worth is measured by what we devote our energy to.”
“Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Focus on that, and don’t let anything distract you.”
“There’s nothing more insufferable than people who boast about their own humility.”
“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.”
“Where there is profit because our effort is productive, because it advances in step with our nature, there we have nothing to fear.”
“Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands? People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.”

These are just a few of the many, many great quotes found in Meditations.

If you liked any of these, I encourage you to read Marcus Aurelius’ full writings: https://amzn.to/4n7FzPY

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366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living: Featuring new translations of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius

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