A reflection on Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius.
Meditations is, as the name suggests, the meditations of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. There isn’t really another book of its kind. In this volume of 150 pages, we get to witness the private thoughts of the most powerful man in the world at the time as he gives advice to himself on how to be a good and just emperor. There are many points that his meditations cover, but most generally, he advocates stoicism: a philosophy focusing on people’s reactions to events, which allows people to endure hardship without complaint. I decided to take two weeks on this book, but even that wasn’t enough. Meditations was quite possibly the most jam-packed, existential book I’ve read. It contained as much knowledge and wisdom as even the densest parts of the bible. Even then, I’m afraid I merely scratched the surface. This is something that I’ll read again and possibly even write a second reflection on the blog later on in the year.
Since there’s so much to tackle, I’ve decided to spend rest of the reflection on my favorite quotes from the book. A lot of this may seem common sense now, but if any of these seem cliche now, they were the opposite of that at the time. It’s not exhaustive, but I hope it can give someone an idea for what this masterpiece is about.
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”
“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.”