Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Review)

Thanks to the virtues of a broad, liberal-arts education, I long ago had the opportunity to read excerpts from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I had not, however, read the short book in its entirety. While I find certain flaws in Stoic philosophy, there are many virtues I admire. I was overdue for a thinking book, so I used the opportunity to read Meditations, and I greatly enjoyed the experience.  

Meditations is much like Enchiridion in that it is accessible and filled with short reflections  that are ideal for contemplation. One of the great shortcomings in our wired life is that the constant ping of phone notifications has a casino-like effect on our thinking—constant distraction and shininess to whittle away our attention spans. Not only does reading generally combat this curse of modernity, but Meditations provides a set of tools for thinking clearly in a world that too often feels incompatible with wisdom.  I recommend this Marcus Aurelius classic for anyone looking to function more effectively amid the madness we so often see.

I read the James Harris translation, which I found compelling. Here are some of the excerpts I find most worthwhile:

• “Remember how long you have been putting off things and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods and yet not used it?” You are part of the universe and a limit of time is fixed for you. Every moment you must think as a Roman (freedom and justice)…live every act as your last…”

• “You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious. You need to get used to winnowing your thoughts, so that if someone says, “What are you thinking about?” you can respond at once (and truthfully) that you are thinking this or thinking that. And it would be obvious at once from your answer that your thoughts were straightforward and considerate ones—the thoughts of an unselfish person, one unconcerned with pleasure and with sensual indulgence generally, with squabbling, with slander and envy, or anything else you’d be ashamed to be caught thinking.” (Gregory Hays Translation of 3.4 – This is one example where I prefer the Hays translation).
  This fall, my daughter began playing tennis—the sport I played in college. As we began playing more together, I realized how much self-coaching runs through my own mind (both on and off the court). The stereotypical scene in rom-coms where the girlfriend asks the boyfriend, “whatcha thinkin?” and she’s met with silence has never been my experience. On the tennis court, my inner monologue might sound like, “I didn’t move my feet quickly enough” or “my toss was too low.” In regular life, Aurelius provides similar instructions for thinking well.
  We must be intentional about our thoughts and motivations. Modern life bombards us with ideas that are too often worthless: buy this, want that, get ripped, remove wrinkles, act now. Without discipline, our minds become receivers for whatever ideas reach our eyes and ears. Meditations reminds us to be intentional about our thoughts as a critical step to avoid a wasteful life.

• As physicians always have their instruments and knives ready for cases that suddenly require their skill, so you should have principles ready for the understanding of things divine and human, and for doing everything, even the smallest, with a recollection of the bond which unites the divine and human to one another. (Book 3, Section 13)
  
  I recently read a comment by Adam Grant that seems applicable here:
  If you reach your goals by compromising your values, you haven’t succeeded. If you fall short of your goals by upholding your values, you haven’t failed. The true measure of accomplishment is standing by your principles when they’re tested.
  
  Much like the idea in 3.3, we need to be mindful of our thinking and our motivations. If not, it becomes far too easy for principles to slide to the wayside.

• Book 4 has a theme of quieting the mind. There are ideas in the section that I would love to debate with Aurelius (or friends in coffee shop or bar), but there are some important principles I value. Here is a portion of the James translation: “I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.” Later, the Hays translation captures this thought in 4.18:
  
  “The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do. Only what you do. (Is this fair? Is this the right thing to do?). Not to be distracted by their darkness. To run straight for the finish line, unswerving.”
  
  Similar to the point above, in this increasingly noisy world, there is great value in learning how to pursue the goal of being “quiet at last.” Arthur Spenser Loat Farquharson added this translation of 4.27, which I appreciate:
  
  “Either an ordered Universe or a medley heaped together mechanically but still an order; or can order subsist in you and disorder in the Whole! And that, too, when all things are so distinguished and yet intermingled and sympathetic.”
  
  Even with the world is disordered and chaotic, you can remain ordered in your own life.

• Meditations provides some excellent passages on avoiding the praise of man and instead prioritizing a disciplined mind. In Book 6, we see this observation:
  
  “Then what is to be prized? An audience clapping? No. No more than the clacking of their tongues. Which is all that public praise amounts to—a clacking of tongues. So we throw out other people’s recognition. What’s left for us to prize? I think it’s this: to do (and not do) what we were designed for. That’s the goal of all trades, all arts, and what each of them aims at: that the thing they create should do what it was designed to do.” (Gregory Hays Translation).
  
  The section continues to note we must pursue doing what we are made to do. If not, we will never be free or content.

• I appreciate the sentiment in Book 8, Chapter 51:
  
  “No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No imprecision in your thoughts. No retreating into your own soul, or trying to escape it. No overactivity.
  They kill you, cut you with knives, shower you with curses. And that somehow cuts your mind off from clearness, and sanity, and self-control, and justice?
  A man standing by a spring of clear, sweet water and cursing it. While the fresh water keeps on bubbling up. He can shovel mud into it, or dung, and the stream will carry it away, wash itself clean, remain unstained.
  To have that. Not a cistern but a perpetual spring.
  How? By working to win your freedom. Hour by hour. Through patience, honesty, humility.” (Gregory Hays Translation).
  
  I wonder if Bradbury had this section in mind when he wrote this excellent passage for Fahrenheit 451:
  
  “You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by. Man, when I was young I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the time I was forty my blunt instrument had been honed to a fine cutting point for me. If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.”
  
  Maintaining a well-ordered mind takes intentionality and care. Passivity on this front will let all sorts of people, entertainment, and news “shovel mud [] or dung” into your psyche and affect it without awareness. It strikes me that there are few things more dangerous than failing to be grounded in what you believe and why, so you are prepared to recognize and evaluate the ideas that bombard us daily.

• Book 11, Chapter 9 reads a bit paternalistically, but the sentiment is invaluable:
  
  “Consider that a good disposition is invincible, if it is genuine, and not a fake smile or an act. For what will the most violent man do to you, if you continue to be of a kind disposition towards him, and if, as opportunity offers, you gently reprimand him and calmly correct his errors at the very time when he is trying to do you harm, saying, my child: we are constituted by nature for something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but you are injuring yourself, my child. And show him with gentle tact and by general principles that this is so, and that even bees do not do as he does, nor any animals which are formed by nature to be fond of company. And you must do this neither with any double meaning nor in the way of reproach, but affectionately and without any bitterness in your soul; and not as if you were lecturing him, nor yet that any bystander may admire, but when he is alone.”
  
  My constant refrain to my kids is: “Keep the most important thing as the most important thing.” Words in the moment often distract from this principle, but focusing on living out the traits of love, gentleness, and self-control will help maintain a joyful disposition, even when met with the harshest of words.

• Book 12, Chapter 4 of Meditations notes that “I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.” Epictetus put the idea this way in Enchiridion #28: “If someone in the street were entrusted with your body, you would be furious. Yet you entrust your mind to anyone around who happens to insult you and allow it to be troubled and confused. Aren’t you ashamed of that?”
  
  There is a balance between being too cocksure to hear legitimate concerns versus the foolishness of surrendering your mind to the opinions of others. The pursuit of wisdom requires a firm commitment to humility and a sober willingness to listen to trusted counsel. It strikes me that the key is seeking out those who are wise without blankly letting others govern our minds.

I could have easily written additional responses to a wider range of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. The benefit of a book with short proverbs is the chance to reflect on the ideas, evaluate their value, and consider how effectively I’m applying them. In a world that is increasingly pinball-like in distracting sights, sounds, and activity, Meditations is a welcome dose of quiet and clarity. I highly recommend this classic for anyone seeking practical steps toward living thoughtfully and wisely.