Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations"

 Bust of Marcus Aurelius ~161–169 CE 

Our readings this semester have exposed us to multiple forms of philosophy via metaphorical short stories, plays, poetry, and dialogues. In his journal Meditations, Marcus Aurelius records his thoughts in a way that appears to address the reader directly as he works through his own philosophies. Many of Aurelius' thoughts sound like sound-bites, but over such a wide range of subjects that is easy to find something that speaks to everyone. His confidence would be amusing if it wasn't justified; as the Emperor of the Golden Age of Rome, he was the most powerful person in the world. Instead of focussing solely on the topic of power and kingship, he focuses on what it means to him to be a virtuous person.

Each entry into the journal is deserving of contemplation, even as some of the phrases are clearly situational and meant only for his own mind. Through his writings, we find that his moral code is still relevant and desirable today; he was educated and had a working knowledge of ancient philosophers; he was unsure about the after-life, and believed in living a virtuous earthly life for its own sake; and although he strove to define a virtuous path for himself, he was critical with aspects of the ways that others lived their life, and he was very concerned with the idea of change. Here are a few of my favourite entries.

• "Be neither a busy talker, not a busybody." (3.5)
• "You should stand upright, not be held upright." (3.5)
• "Nothing that is undertaken is to be undertaken without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to a principle which makes the art of living perfect." (4.2)
• "The Universe is change, life is opinion." (4.3)
• "Get rid of the judgement; you are rid of the 'I am hurt'; get rid of the 'I am hurt', you are rid of the hurt itself." (4.7)
• "All is ephemeral, both what remembers and what is remembered." (4.35)
• "You are a spirit bearing the weight of a dead body, as Epictetus used to say." (4.41)
• "The motions of the Elements are up, down, in circles:" The movement of man's excellence is in none of these, but proceeding in a more divine way and on a path past finding out it fares well." (6.17)
• "Alexander the Great and his stable boy were levelled in death, for they were either taken up into the same life-giving principles of the Universe or were scattered without distinction into atoms." (6.24)
• "I do not deserve to give myself pain, for I never deliberately gave another pain." (8.42)
• "To the stone that is thrown up it is no ill to be carried down nor good to be carried upwards." (9.17)
• The unripe grape, the ripe bunch, the dried raisin, all are changes; not to nothing, but to what at this moment is nothing." (11.35)

** When I was Googling Marcus Aurelius, I came across this summary of Meditations on Philosophy Bro. It's kind of hilarious.

 

Works Cited:

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. Trans. A.S.L Farquharson. New York: Oxford, 2008. Print.