The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius really brought me into the stoic philosophy. After the initial part about life and death below I’ll continue with quotes regarding about life and ethics.
The next and final post about the book will be about about life and emotions.
As a Roman emperor and Stoic, Marcus Aurelius is known for his thoughts and life wisdom, which still inspire many people today. His reflections on life, death, and human nature are definetely timeless.
5 quotes about life and ethics
If you follow sound reason and work with zeal, strength and love in what you are about to do, without any other thought guiding you than that of keeping your inner being pure, as if you were soon to give up your spirit; if you pull yourself together in this way, neither hesitating nor hurrying, but allowing yourself to be satisfied with the energy naturally at your disposal and with the truthfulness that must shine forth from every word you utter, you will lead a happy life. And I would not know who could prevent you from doing so.
I think that’s really the key. Focus on the one thing you’re doing right now, be gracious to yourself and calm about anything that comes your way. Nature has taken care of that for you.
For someone who considers only what happens at the right time to be a good, who is indifferent to whether he has a greater or lesser number of rational actions to show, who makes no distinction between a longer or shorter view of the world, even death is nothing terrible.
I think this means don’t look to far outside of your environment if you are searching for ways to benchmark the good or bad of your actions. It does not matter.
Love what you encounter and what is allotted to you, for what could you do more fairly?
This goes in a similar direction to the previous point. By nature, people tend to overvalue what others have, but undervalue what they themselves possess.
To what a first keen eye has taught you, add nothing more. You have learned that some people speak ill of you. Very well. But you have not heard that you are offended. You see, your child is ill. Very well. But you do not see that it is in danger. And so always leave it at the first, and add nothing from within yourself, and nothing will happen to you.
Interesting. Overinterpretation and overthinking is not a very emotional and resource-conserving approach, as you always imagine negative scenarios that never materialize or are irrelevant anyway.
But if you do not stop attaching importance to a lot of other things, you are not yet a free, independent, dispassionate person, but are always in a position to be envious and jealous and deceitful against those who possess what you value so highly, and suspicious that someone might want to take it from you, and in despair if you lack it, and full of reproach against the gods. But if it is your attitude alone that constitutes your worth and dignity in your eyes, then you will be able to respect yourself, please those around you and praise and glorify the gods.
For me viewing everything with a little smile helps overcome the emotional attachement. Remember you are just a monkey with a plan. Keep your inner strength - Stoism.
All quotes used in this post come from the work “The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius”. This book, also known as Self-Contemplations, was written by Emperor Marcus Aurelius and is a collection of personal notes and philosophical reflections. It is one of the most important works of Stoic philosophy.