“Understand that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Write your response
Take five minutes with it. No account needed to start, and nobody else can read what you write.
Respond to this passageWhere this comes from
Marcus Aurelius’ private notebooks, written for no audience but himself.
Marcus Aurelius. Roman emperor from 161 to 180 CE, and the last of the emperors remembered as the "Five Good Emperors". The notebooks we call Meditations were written in Greek, largely on campaign, and were never meant to be read by anyone else — which is why they read as instruction to himself rather than argument aimed at a reader.
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“Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Does anything pass into oblivion? No, not really. It is still right here with us.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not the thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations