JMJ Marist Brothers

Notre Dame of Marbel University

College of Arts and Sciences
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

Ancient
Roman
Literature
:
About the Author
Meditatio
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor who tried to live out his philosophy of life and used a diary to do
ns by
this. He was known to have written many notable quotes about his day-to-day, discursive, fragmentary
political thoughts in Greek in untitled writings that came to be known as his 12-volume "Meditations."
Born in 121 CE, and educated extensively in rhetoric and philosophy, Marcus Aurelius Marcussucceeded his
adoptive father Antoninus Pius as Emperor of Rome in 161 CE, and reigned until his own death in 180. His
reign was troubled by attacks from Germany, rebellions in northern Italy and Egypt, and Aurelius
an outburst of the
plague; at least part of the work for which he is famous, the Meditations, was written during the last years of
his military campaigns. As Emperor of Rome from 161-180, Marcus Aurelius kept the empire safe from the
Parthians and Germans but is best known for his intellectual pursuits.
Representative Text: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius contains “notes to himself”, a reflective notebook written down for his own
private use in the last twelve years of his life when he was campaigning in Germany. The thoughts form no
organized system of philosophy but are the record of a person whose principles were noble, who had a
warm love of humankind, and who had a philosophy similar to religion. Described by philosopher and
biblical scholar Ernst Renan as “a gospel for those who do not believe in the supernatural,” Meditations is a
series of fragments, aphorisms, arguments, and injunctions that were written at different moments in the
final years of Marcus’ life.
Many revere Meditations by Aurelius as one of the world's greatest works of philosophy and a significant
contributor to the modern understanding of ancient Stoicism. Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that was
once one of the most popular civic disciplines in the West and a tool in the pursuit of self-mastery,
perseverance, and wisdom. Aurelius practiced Stoicism, and his writings reflect this philosophy of service
and duty, finding balance, and reaching a state of stability and composure in the face of conflict (Lombardi,
2019). Marcus became a Stoic at the age of eleven and remained a dedicated follower of stoicism for the
rest of his life.
A Brief Background on Stoicism
To appreciate better Meditations, it is useful to begin with a background in early Stoic ethics.

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 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
College of Arts and Sciences
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

The Meditations comprises over 400 fragments, divided into 12 books. These disparate fragments are
shaped by a few core philosophical principles. At the basis of these principles is the fundamental Stoic
distinction expressed most clearly by the emancipated slave turned philosopher, Epictetus, whom Marcus
greatly admired: that some things depend upon us and others do not. In fact, of all the things in the world,
we can only directly control what we do, think, choose, desire, and fear.
Everything else, including everything our society tells us that we need to “get a life” – riches, property,
fame, promotions – depends on others and on fortune. It is here today and gone tomorrow, and it is usually
distributed unfairly. So to pin our dreams on achieving such things makes our happiness and peace of mind
a highly uncertain prospect.
The Stoics propose that what they call “virtue” is the only good. And this virtue consists above all in
knowing how best to respond to the things that befall us, rather than fretting about things we cannot control.
In many respects, it bears a remarkable similarity to the ethical teaching of Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563 -
483 B.C.) and Buddhism, which is grounded in the four noble truths: 1) all life has suffering; 2) suffering is
rooted in passion and desire; 3) happiness is freedom from the passions; 4) moral restraint and self-
discipline is the means by which one becomes free from suffering.
An important aspect of Stoicism involves improving the individual’s ethical and moral well-being by having a
will which is in agreement with Nature, and by practicing the four cardinal virtues (derived from the
teachings of Plato): wisdom ("sophia"), courage ("andreia"), justice ("dikaiosyne") and temperance
("sophrosyne") (The basics of Philosophy, 2008).
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations gives us an overview of one great Roman king’s ruminations on death, life, and justice as well
as the nature of the world, and why things happen the way they do. As previously stated, it is not a
narrative but a collection of sayings and words of wisdom to contemplate.
The Big Takeaways:
1. Death is an inevitable factor of life and one that should not be feared.
Marcus Aurelius adopts a theme of the “transience of human life”. This is an attribute not only of the Stoic
philosophy, but also of Marcus’ character. Death is never far away—something that must be accepted as
part of the cycle of life, not to be feared or despaired of, but to be embraced:
 “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.” (5.24)
 “In short, know this: Human lives are brief and trivial. Yesterday a blob of semen; tomorrow
embalming fluid, ash.” (4.48)
 . “Fight to be the person philosophy tried to make you. Revere the gods; watch over human beings.
Our lives are short. The only rewards of our existence here are an unstained character and
unselfish acts.” (6.30)

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 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
College of Arts and Sciences
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

 “Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense.”
(7.69)
 . “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.”
(7.56)
 “It is not death that a man should fear, but rather he should fear never beginning to live.”
(translation from Juma, 2019)
 “But death and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure—all these things equally happen to
good men and bad, being things which make us neither better nor worse. Therefore they are
neither good nor evil.” (translation from Juma, 2019)
 “Stop whatever you’re doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won’t
be able to do this anymore?” (translation from Juma, 2019)
 “When the longest- and shortest-lived of us dies their loss is precisely equal. For the sole thing of
which any of us can be deprived is the present, since this is all we own, and nobody can lose what
is not theirs.” (translation from Juma, 2019)
 “All things fade and quickly turn to myth.” (translation from Juma, 2019)
 “Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live,
while it is in your power, be good.” (translation from goodreads, n.d.)

2. The concept of Logos covers the destiny and working of every living and non-living thing – be
content with it.
The author discusses the importance of being satisfied with the Logos, no matter how hard life puts you
down. Logos is an ancient belief in destiny’s will.
The stoics believed in the unwavering conviction that the world is organized in a rational and coherent way.
More specifically, it is controlled and directed by an all-pervading force that the Stoics designated as logos.
The term (from which English ‘logic’ and the suffix ‘-ology’ derive) has a semantic range so broad as to be
almost untranslatable. Logos operates in human beings and in the universe, and could be equated with
nature or God:
 “For there is a single harmony. Just as the world forms a single body comprising all bodies, so fate
forms a single purpose, comprising all purposes.” (5.8)
 “He does only what is his to do, and considers constantly what the world has in store for him—
doing his best, and trusting that all is for the best. For we carry our fate with us —and it carries us.”
(3.4)
 . “No one can keep you from living as your nature requires. Nothing can happen to you that is not
required by Nature.” (6.58)
 “Be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant.” (9.29)
 “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” (5.20)

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 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
College of Arts and Sciences
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

 “To bear in mind constantly that all of this has happened before. And will happen again—the same
plot from beginning to end, the identical staging. Produce them in your mind, as you know them
from experience or from history…All just the same. Only the people different.” (10.27)
 “People ask, ‘Have you ever seen the gods you worship? How can you be sure they exist?’
Answers: i. Just look around you. ii. I’ve never seen my soul either. And yet I revere it. That’s how I
know the gods exist and why I revere them— from having felt their power, over and over.” (12.28)
 “Three relationships: i. with the body you inhabit; ii. with the divine, the cause of everything in all
things; iii. with the people around you.” (8.27)

3. It is useless to complain, wasting the short time we have in this world

Marcus Aurelius hated holding court, but he knew he shouldn’t spend even a second regretting his duties.
Instead, he trusted in the grand scheme of things, knowing that logos had a plan for him, and there will be
moments where his part in the plan was to let people waste his time with superficial arguments and small
talk in court.
To Aurelius, people should strive to be useful and live life to the fullest for whatever time we have left in this
world is not worth losing to complaining:
 “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.” (4.3)
 “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work—as a
human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for— the things I
was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets
and stay warm?'” (5.1)

4. Logic and reason are the highest order of thinking

Logical and analytical thinking are the highest form of thinking. It is believed that is how the Logos judges
and thinks as well. Marcus Aurelius also believed that everything happens for a reason. Always. Even in
the worst of times, he took comfort in the fact that everything is exactly as it’s supposed to be:
 “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 or birth, but the same mind,
and possessing a share of the divine.” (2.1)
 “Objective judgment, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing
acceptance—now, at this very moment—of all external events. That’s all you need.” (9.6)
 “If you seek tranquility, do less.’ Or (more accurately) do what’s essential what the logos of a social
being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better.

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 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
College of Arts and Sciences
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time,
and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’” (4.24)
 “Your three components: body, breath, mind. Two are yours in trust; to the third alone you have
clear title.” (12.3)

5. There is only one kind of pain in this world – the pain we inflict on ourselves.
Marcus Aurelius believed that physical pain was part of logos’s big plan. He also suffered a lot of
psychological pain in his lifetime; out of his 13 children, 8 died before him, including his wife, who died at a
very young age.
But he was convinced that all these things happen for good reason, trusted in the purpose, and thus
remained calm even in the worst of times. After all, these deaths were external events that Marcus Aurelius
had no hand in whatsoever.
Moreover, he believed that humans suffer pain when they do not have faith in the higher judgment of
Logos:
 “It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you—inside or out.”
(4.8)
 “The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your
thoughts.” (5.16)
 “The mind in itself has no needs, except for those it creates itself. Is undisturbed, except for its own
disturbances. Knows no obstructions, except those from within.” (7.16)
 “That things have no hold on the soul. They stand there unmoving, outside it. Disturbance comes
only from within—from our own perceptions.” (4.3)
 “Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.”
(4.7)
 “I can control my thoughts as necessary; then how can I be troubled? What is outside my mind
means nothing to it. Absorb that lesson and your feet stand firm. You can return to life. Look at
things as you did before. And life returns.” (7.2)
 “External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right
now.” (8.47)
 “What injures the hive injures the bee.” (6.54)
 “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about
their opinion than our own.” (translation from Juma, 2019)
Other Statements to Remember from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Aurelius also apparently loved to make “notes to self” or lists of things to remember or remind himself. The
list includes various topics which make them hard to categorize in just one specific theme. Nevertheless,
this includes some of his most important wisdom:

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 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
College of Arts and Sciences
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

 “Wash yourself clean. With simplicity, with humility, with indifference to everything but right and
wrong. Care for other human beings. Follow God.” (7.31)
 “Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be
a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without
hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.”
(8.5)
 “Apply them constantly, to everything that happens: Physics. Ethics. Logic.” (8.13)
 “Stick to what’s in front of you—idea, action, utterance.” (8.22)
 “Your actions and perceptions need to aim: at accomplishing practical ends, at the exercise of
thought, at maintaining a confidence founded on understanding. An unobtrusive confidence—
hidden in plain sight.” (10.9)
 “Continual awareness of all time and space, of the size and life span of the things around us. A
grape seed in infinite space. A half twist of a corkscrew against eternity.” (10.17)
 “Characteristics of the rational soul: Self-perception, self-examination, and the power to make of
itself whatever it wants. It reaps its own harvest, unlike plants (and, in a different way, animals),
whose yield is gathered in by others. It reaches its intended goal, no matter where the limit of its
life is set.” (11.1)
 “That an individual’s mind is God and of God. That nothing belongs to anyone. Children, body, life
itself—all of them come from that same source. That it’s all how you choose to see things. That
the present is all we have to live in. Or to lose.” (12.26)

 “To stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.” (10.16)

 “Be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant.”
(9.29)
 “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
(translation from goodreads, n.d.)
 “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” (translation from goodreads, n.d.)
 “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What
fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” (translation from goodreads,
n.d.)
 “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks
of the insane.” (translation from goodreads, n.d.)
 “How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.” (translation from
goodreads, n.d.)

Notes:

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 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
College of Arts and Sciences
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

1. The quotes are from Meditations as translated by Gregory Hays (2003, as stated in Kowalski, n.d.),
unless otherwise stated.
2. The book number and chapter/verse number are stated at the end of most of the quotes (e.g., 6.10
means Book 6, Chapter/Verse 10)
References:
Marcus Aurelius Biography. (2014.). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/political-figure/marcus-

aurelius

Meditations. (2006). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations

Lombardi, E. (2019). Famous Quotes of Roman Emperor, Philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Retrieved from

https://www.thoughtco.com/marcus-aurelius-antoninius-quotes-738680

The basics of Philosophy. (2008). Retrieved from

https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_stoicism.html#:~:text=Stoicism%20is%20an%20ancient
%20Greek,means%20of%20overcoming%20destructive%20emotions.

Gill, C. (2013). Marcus Aurelius meditations books 1–6. Retrieved from

https://www.academia.edu/35178243/Marcus_Aurelius_Meditations_Books_1_6_pdf

Kowalski, K. (n.d.). 40 Marcus Aurelius Quotes, 7 Deep Questions, & More from “Meditations”. Retrieved

from https://www.sloww.co/marcus-aurelius-quotes/

Juma, N. (2019). 50 Marcus Aurelius quotes on Life, Death and Love. Retrieved from

https://everydaypower.com/marcus-aurelius-quotes/

Marcus Aurelius quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2020 from

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/17212.Marcus_Aurelius

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