Meditations Themes

It might also seem strange that a Roman emperor would be such an advocate of personal liberty and even freedom for his subjects. But be aware: Marcus Aurelius isn't speaking of a fully democratic s...

Basically, the Meditations is just a notebook of principles written by Marcus Aurelius to himself. His commitment to Stoic philosophy meant that above all things, Marcus wanted to act in accordance...

Marcus's definitions of good and evil in Meditations are about as straightforward as you can get. Good is what is right, or what is part of your nature. Evil is basically just the opposite of good....

If Marcus Aurelius were writing today, he might have called his book something like The Power of Positive Thinking—or at least The Power of Neutral Thinking. One of the dude's central principles...

Death? Yeah, Marcus Aurelius is basically like, "Whatever."As with other unpleasant things in life, Marcus sees death in Meditations as a purely practical concern: it's a built-in part of human nat...

In the Meditations, Marcus spends a lot of time reminding himself that he was put on this earth for a purpose. Given the fact that he's, you know, Emperor of Rome, you might think he would believe...

Marcus Aurelius is a purpose-driven guy. As he tells us in his Meditations, he's got no desire to fritter his short life away with "distractions"—pleasure, irritations, or short-lived trash like...

As Marcus Aurelius puts it in the Meditations, as soon as you get attached to something, you lose it. That's just life. Even human life itself it short-lived, constantly moving toward decay, unstab...

Marcus Aurelius may have been the Emperor of Rome, but he still worried about who he really was—and about his purpose in the world. The guy we see in Meditations is someone struggling to fulfill...

In Meditations, Marcus gets into some pretty far-out thoughts about time and what it means. Sometimes, he thinks of time as a "violent stream" that drags all of creation along to its inevitable end...