Book Review: “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius

If you are interested in modern Stoicism*, you have likely heard of the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Written in the second century AD, this is an unusual book in the sense that it was compiled as a series of self-reflecting notes by its author – Roman emperor who ruled for ~20 years. The book is compiled as a series of 12 sections (called books!) with no relation to each other by Gregory Hays, an associate professor of classics at the University of Virginia. Since the book was never supposed to be written for others, the content is broadly unstructured. Book’s long-established English title Meditations is not only not original, but positively misleading, lending a superior impression of authority quite alien to the haphazard set of notes that constitute the book

Over the millennia, the book has stood the test of time and as one goes through it, the lessons seem familiar. I am taking an unusual approach to this summary. As a fun exercise, I will also append** a contemporary reference to this timeless classic cutting across religious scriptures, business management philosophies, mindfulness techniques, product management and of course modern stoicism

1. The author thanks Rusticus, for inspiring him to read attentively—not to be satisfied with “just getting the gist of it.” And not to fall for every smooth talker. He is grateful to Apollonius for having learned how to accept favors from friends without losing your self-respect or appearing ungrateful
2. He thanks Alexander (not the Great) for not constantly telling people (or writing them) that I’m too busy, unless I really am. Similarly, not to be always ducking my responsibilities to the people around me because of “pressing business.”
3. He expresses gratitude for Maximus for instilling in other people a certainty that what he said was what he thought, and what he did was done without malice. And that That no one could ever have felt patronized by him—or in a position to patronize him
4. He is grateful to his adopted father (Roman emperor Antonius Pious) for his searching questions at the meeting. A kind of single-mindedness, almost, never content with first impressions, or breaking off the discussion prematurely
   1. The way he handled the material comforts that fortune had supplied him in such abundance—without arrogance and without apology. If they were there, he took advantage of them. If not, he didn’t miss them
   2. That he respected tradition without needing to constantly congratulate himself for Safeguarding Our Traditional Values
5. 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
6. How to act
   1. Never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings.
   2. So make your choice straightforwardly, once and for all, and stick to it. Choose what’s best.
      1. Best is what benefits me
         1. As a rational being? Then follow through. Or just as an animal? Then say so and stand your ground without making a show of it. (Just make sure you’ve done your homework first.)
   3. If it’s time for you to go, leave willingly—as you would to accomplish anything that can be done with grace and honor
   4. Sprint for the finish. Write off your hopes, and if your well-being matters to you, be your own savior while you can
7. Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been
8. “If you seek tranquility, do less.” Or (more accurately) do what’s essential. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?” We need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well in order to eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow
9. The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve
10. What should we work for? Only this: proper understanding; unselfish action; truthful speech. A resolve to accept whatever happens as necessary and familiar
11. If an action or utterance is appropriate, then it’s appropriate for you. Don’t be put off by other people’s comments and criticism. If it’s right to say or do it, then it’s the right thing for you to do or say
12. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way
13.  In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them
14. Two characteristics shared by gods and men (and every rational creature):

• Not to let others hold you back
• To locate goodness in thinking and doing the right thing, and to limit your desires to that

15. If anyone can refute me—show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective—I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance
16. Nothing has meaning to my mind except its own actions. Which are within its own control. And it’s only the immediate ones that matter. Its past and future actions too are meaningless
17. For a human being to feel stress is normal—if he’s living a normal human life. And if it’s normal, how can it be bad?
18. When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one’s energy, that one’s modesty, another’s generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re practically showered with them.
19. Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their minds
20. What injures the hive injures the bee
21. Is my intellect up to this? If so, then I’ll put it to work, like a tool provided by nature. And if it isn’t, then I’ll turn the job over to someone who can do better—unless I have no choice
22. Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish
23. Treat what you don’t have as nonexistent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you’d crave them if you didn’t have them. But be careful. Don’t feel such satisfaction that you start to overvalue them—that it would upset you to lose them
24. Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly
25. Nature did not blend things so inextricably that you can’t draw your own boundaries—place your own well-being in your own hands. It’s quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it. Remember that
26. It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own
27. No one objects to what is useful to him
28. When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic—what defines a human being—is to work with others
29. Stick to what’s in front of you—idea, action, utterance
30. To see things as they are and treat them as they deserve. Don’t overlook this innate ability
31. To accept it without arrogance, to let it go with indifference
32. Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, “Why can’t I endure it?” You’ll be embarrassed to answer
33. External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them which you can erase right now
34. 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
35. Just remember: you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so. None of us is forbidden to pursue our own good
36. It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own
37. On death: make your exit with grace—the same grace shown to you

The book can be ordered from Amazon from here

*Of the doctrines central to the Stoic worldview, perhaps the most important is 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 by the term logos

**Contemporary References and Parallels

The references below are not meant to imply that the later thinkers necessarily drew directly from Meditations. Rather, they illustrate how several ideas Marcus Aurelius was wrestling with nearly two millennia ago reappear in modern psychology, scriptures, management, philosophy and entrepreneurship

1. Adler, Mortimer J., and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book. Revised edition, 1972.
   A modern parallel to Marcus’s appreciation of Rusticus for teaching him to read attentively rather than being satisfied with merely “getting the gist” (#1). Adler and Van Doren similarly distinguish active, analytical reading from simply consuming text. Also one of Amazon’s leadership principles “dive deep”!
2. Scott, Kim. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. St. Martin’s Press, 2017.
   Scott’s management philosophy of combining personal care with directness offers a contemporary parallel to the qualities Marcus admired in Maximus—sincerity, absence of malice and the ability to deal with people without patronizing them (#3)
3. Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. Portfolio, 2014.
   This is the most direct modern reference in the list. Holiday builds his book around Marcus Aurelius’s observation that an impediment to action can itself advance action: “What stands in the way becomes the way” (#12)
4. Dalio, Ray. Principles: Life and Work. Simon & Schuster, 2017.
   Dalio’s emphasis on radical open-mindedness, confronting reality and actively discovering where one’s own thinking is wrong closely parallels Marcus’s willingness to change his mind when someone can demonstrate that he is mistaken (#15 and 30)
5. The Bhagavad Gita, 2.47.
   Marcus’s insistence on concentrating on one’s own actions and what lies within one’s control (#16) has an important parallel in the Bhagavad Gita: one’s responsibility is to action, rather than attachment to the eventual fruits of that action. The two ideas are not identical, but both shift attention away from outcomes and towards right action in the present
6. Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Free Press, 1989.
   Covey’s Habit 5—seeking first to understand another person before seeking to be understood—is a modern formulation of Marcus’s instruction to really listen and try to enter another person’s mind (#19). Covey’s distinction between one’s “Circle of Concern” and “Circle of Influence” also parallels Marcus’s repeated emphasis on correcting oneself rather than obsessing over other people’s faults (#26)
7. Grove, Andrew S. High Output Management. Random House, 1983.
   Grove’s conception of management places the emphasis on the output of the team rather than on the manager personally performing every task. It provides a useful modern organizational parallel to Marcus’s willingness to hand a task to someone who can perform it better (#21)—one of the fundamental ideas behind delegation and scaling organizations
8. Jobs, Steve. “Commencement Address.” Stanford University, 12 June 2005.
   Jobs described remembering his own mortality as one of his most important decision-making tools: death stripped away external expectations, pride and fear and helped expose what really mattered. This closely parallels Marcus’s much starker exercise: “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly” (#24)
9. Y Combinator. “Make Something People Want.”
   Y Combinator’s famous motto is perhaps the cleanest product-management counterpart to Marcus’s observation that “no one objects to what is useful to him” (#27). In contemporary product literature, creating something genuinely useful reduces the need to manufacture demand through persuasion
10. Gawande, Atul. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Metropolitan Books, 2014.
    Gawande approaches mortality from medicine rather than Stoicism, but arrives at a related question: once death is accepted as part of the human condition, how should we live—and how should we approach the end—with dignity and according to what genuinely matters to us? This provides a contemporary counterpart to Marcus’s recurring reflections on death and his final instruction to “make your exit with grace” (#37)