In this post, we’re going to break down 10 powerful lessons (for everyday life) from the Stoic philosophy found in Marcus Aurelius‘ Meditations. First, we’ll briefly introduce Meditations for those not familiar with the Emperor’s Journal.

During his time as Roman Emperor (from 161-180 AD) Marcus Aurelius was one of the most powerful men in the world.

He ruled the massive empire of Rome so well that he was regarded as “The Last Good Emperor”.

Despite all of the power and wealth at this fingertips, how did Marcus Aurelius keep from becoming a greedy, egotistical tyrant?

Here’s how:

He checked himself. Every night.

The Emperor kept a nightly journal. He wrote in it the philosophy that would make him the great “Philosopher-King” we know him as today.

His writings tackled challenges such as happiness, revenge, death…he even wrote about dealing with annoying people.

Turns out this “Journal” of his would become one of the greatest philosophical works…..ever.

Marcus Aurelius’ writings wouldn’t be officially published until centuries after his death, under the title Meditations.

There are a bunch of different translations (It was originally written in greek) of Meditations available to us today. We recommend either the translation by Gregory Hays or David and Scott Hicks. They’re both recent works that use modern, easy-to-read language.

Now let’s take a look at 10 powerful quotes from these recent translations and see how we could use the Stoic Philosophy to live better lives in our modern world.

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you find strength”

This idea is essentially the foundation of Stoic Philosophy.

Your mind is the one thing you can have total control over in life.

It’s not easy with the number of distractions, advertisements and sensational media stories we have to deal with today.

However, there is great power in the realization that in the end, you control what you think.

Not your parents, not your friends, not the multimillion-dollar advertising company trying to get you to buy that thing you don’t need…….No one but you can control your mind.

“The universe is change, life is an opinion”.

This is probably more relevant to our generation than anyone who came before us.

In the last 20 years alone, technology has drastically changed the way we communicate, learn, travel, eat, sleep…..almost everything!

You have no control over these changes.