Work
Meditations
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About this work
Meditations is the private notebook of Marcus Aurelius, written to himself between roughly 170 and 180 CE while he campaigned on the empire's frontier. It was never meant to be read by anyone else, which is exactly why it endures: across twelve short books it returns, again and again, to a single practice. Meet each day with reason, accept what lies outside your control, and act with virtue whatever the circumstance.
About the author — Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius (121 to 180 CE) was Roman emperor and the last of the Five Good Emperors, ruling at the height of the Pax Romana. He is remembered less for his reign than for proving that Stoic philosophy could be lived at the very summit of power, by the one person who could have ignored it entirely.
19 quotes from this work
You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
If you are pained by anything external, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgement of it.
Remember that all is opinion.
The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
Confine yourself to the present.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
People also ask
What is the main point of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius?
That you control your own judgments and actions, and almost nothing else. Marcus keeps returning to one discipline: separate what is up to you from what is not, accept the rest, and keep acting with reason and virtue.
Is it worth reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius?
Yes. It is short, plainspoken, and unusually personal for a philosophy classic. Most readers find a handful of passages that read like advice written directly to them, in their own situation.
What are the Stoic principles in Meditations?
The recurring ones: focus only on what you can control, live according to nature and reason, treat every setback as material for virtue, keep your own mortality in view, and work for the common good.