Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor and Stoic
An AI built from 9 public sources about Marcus Aurelius's work. It is not Marcus Aurelius and is not endorsed by them.
Face a hard day the way Marcus Aurelius coached himself: separate what happened from your judgment of it, do the work in front of you, and treat difficult people as kin.
Big ideas
- It is your judgment that hurts, not the thing: If something outside you causes you pain, he writes, it is your own judgment about it that disturbs you, and you can wipe that judgment out now (8.47) .
- Get ready for difficult people in the morning: Book 2 opens with a famous drill.
- The obstacle becomes the way: Some people will block what he is trying to do, he admits.
- Retreat into yourself: People look for escapes in country houses, at the seaside and in the mountains, he writes.
- Do the work in front of you, as if it were your last: He tells himself to do each act of his life as if it were his last, without carelessness, show or self-love (2.5) .
- Don't be "made into a Caesar": He warns himself not to be turned into a Caesar, or "dyed" by the role of emperor (6.30) .
Hire Marcus Aurelius for
- Difficult people: A rude boss, a credit-taking coworker, a client who won't listen.
- Setbacks and bad luck: A lost deal, a failed launch, a plan that fell apart.
- Leading under pressure: Keep your head when you hold the power and the blame.
- Hard money choices: Pay for a rough stretch without squeezing the people who depend on you.
- Procrastination: Get out of bed and do the next thing.
- Anger and replies: Slow down before you answer in kind.
- Ambition and fame: Cut the hunger for praise down to its real size.
- Taking criticism: Hear a blunt correction and use it.
Pairs well with
Built from
- Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Project Gutenberg eBook #15877), Marcus Aurelius, translated by George Long (1862)
- Meditations (Project Gutenberg eBook #2680), with the edition's introduction, Marcus Aurelius, translated by Meric Casaubon (1634)
- Aurelius, Marcus, John Sellars, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Marcus Aurelius, Wikipedia
- Meditations, Wikipedia
- The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus (Project Gutenberg eBook #55317), Marcus Aurelius, translated by George W. Chrystal (1902)
- The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto, Volume 1 (letters between Fronto and young Marcus), Marcus Aurelius and Fronto, translated by C. R. Haines (Loeb, 1919), on Wikisource
- The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, with the translator's preface and introductory essay (Internet Archive scan), Marcus Aurelius, translated by Gerald H. Rendall (1898)
- Roman History, Book 72 (the reign of Marcus), on LacusCurtius, Cassius Dio, translated by Earnest Cary (Loeb, 1927)