Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Three Point Summary | Notes on big ideas from intriguing books

Feb 25, 2023

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of peace and stability for the Empire.

Meditations is a collection of Aurelius’ personal journals. It’s not clear whether he ever wanted them to be read by others; many believe the writings were a diary that was unintended for the public.

I. Inner Peace

Marcus Aurelius and other Stoics believed peace comes from within:

Through deriving your self-worth from your character; not others opinions
Through being careful about how you react to and interpret things; so as to not let out of control emotions dictate your life
Through avoiding distractions that are obstacles to you living in accordance with your purpose
Through caring about the quality of your words and actions themselves, not the outcomes of your words and actions
Through living in the present moment; instead of being hung up on the past or lost in delusions of the future

People try to get away from it all—to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul. Especially if you have other things to rely on. An instant’s recollection and there it is: complete tranquility. And by tranquility I mean a kind of harmony.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.

Treat what you don’t have as nonexistent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you'd crave them if you didn’t have them. But be careful. Don’t feel such satisfaction that you start to overvalue them—that it would upset you to lose them.

The things which are external to my mind have no relation at all to my mind.

Confine yourself to the present.

You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

II. Valuing Time

Aurelius wrote some beautiful words about every humans most valuable resource—time—and how little of it we have. He believed that recognizing how precious time is, as well as how small we are in relation to the universe, were the keys to achieving mental clarity:

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

Remember: Matter—how tiny your share of it. Time—how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate—how small a role you play in it.
How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man, for it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal!

You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind—things that exist only there—and clear out space for yourself by comprehending the scale of the world…by contemplating infinite time…by thinking of the speed with which things change—each part of everything; the narrow space between our birth and death; the infinite time before; the equally unbounded time that follows.

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

III. Cultivating a Strong Mind

The Roman emperor was known as ‘The Philosopher King.’ He wrote many maxims that have survived and been shared for thousands of years. His insights are timeless:

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside.

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

Cast away opinion: thou art saved.

You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves…The best revenge is not to be like that.

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions…The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.
If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it.

AND 1—Preparation

Premeditatio Malorum:

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me.