6/3/24

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius gives an unfiltered look into the mind of one of the greatest and most ethical leaders in history. Meditations is not really a book, but more a collection of his thoughts from day to day. He often reminds himself of guiding principles that he is trying to follow.

Quotes I liked

1. “Because you have chosen not to respect yourself, you have made your happiness subject to the opinions others have of you.” I like this quote because it reminds the reader to derive happiness from within yourself, and not from the opinions of the people around you. I agree with this argument that you lose self respect when you base your happiness solely off of people around you.
2. “Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason. It enables you to learn from experience, to live in harmony with others, and to walk in the way of the gods.” This quote reminds the reader that you should always be forming opinions and logically considering the past
3. “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.” This quote argues that you should do your best in everything that you do and trust that it will turn out well for you. It also reminds the reader not to worry about things that are out of their control.

September 2025:

I came back to my first blog post because to be honest, I had forgotten what I said all those months ago. It was shorter than I remembered.

Reading through the first quote, I couldn’t help but see the similarity of this quote to Socrates’s argument against escaping prison with Crito. Crito says to Socrates that if he doesn’t help him escape, the general public will think him a coward and a bad friend, because it’s obvious that he could have helped Socrates escape. Crito fears being judged by the masses, yet Socrates reminds him that only the judgements of morally good individuals matter.

This was the first philosophical work I had ever read, I guess other than the bible, and I plan on re-reading it.