10 profound life lessons from Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius,a Roman emperor, is best known for his philosophical work, “Meditations,” which reflect his stoic beliefs and offers profound insights into personal life and leadership. Many of those insights remain relevant today as they were in their own time. From his numerous teachings here are ten profound life lessons that resonates with all human situations.
Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone, those that are now, and those to come. Existence flows past us like a river. The “what” is in constant flux, the “why” has a thousand variations. Nothing is stable, not even what’s right here. The infinity of past and future gapes before us, a chasm whose depths we cannot see. So, it would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress. Or any indignation, either. As if things that irritate us lasted.
Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognise that if it’s humanely possible, you can do it too.
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.
Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What’s closer to nature’s heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? Can any vital process take place without something being changed? Can’t you see? It”s just the same with you-and just as vital to nature.
To feel affection for people even when they make mistakes is uniquely human. You can do it, if you simply recognise that they’re human too, that they act out of ignorance, against their will, and that you’ll both be dead before long. And, above all, that they haven’t really hurt you. They haven’t diminished your ability to choose.
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Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.
When you run up against someone else’s shamelessness, ask yourself this: “is a world without shamelessness possible? No. Then don’t ask the impossible. There have to be shameless people in the world. This is one of them. The same for someone vicious or untrustworthy, or with any other defect. Remembering that the whole world class has to exist will make you more tolerant of its member.
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It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people but care more about their opinion than our own.
If you learn that someone is speaking ill of you, don’t try to defend yourself against the rumours; respond instead with “Yes, and he doesn’t know the half of it, because he could have said more”.
How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, this set much value on.
