Meditations is STILL one of my favorite books of all time, even in 2025.
This is a repost of an older article from 2022-2023 on the blog before the revive and switching hosts.
This article remains entirely un-edited asides from updating links and inserting a few new ones to keep it relevant, i will denote the changes where I do with an asterisk and bold text.
As always, please note any external links to products for purchase are affiliate links that provide me with financial gain, if you so choice to click on them and purchase something. Thank you 🙂
Without further ado, Enjoy!
While there are a LOT of “self improvement” books, “Meditations” is in my opinion the greatest.
What’s incredible is that it is not meant to be inspiring or helpful.
Meditation’s wasn’t written as a book to be marketed.
It’s pretty much just the world’s most powerful man’s private thoughts.
With this insight of his internal monologue your world changes.
You will understand the practical, real world application of “Stoicism”
Applying this way of thought to your life is powerful beyond belief.
I use it a lot, even without thinking about it.
I’m positive you can too.
Meditations and Your Roadmap to Success.
“Book Five” from Meditations resonates with me the deepest.
It PERFECTLY channels the struggles of getting out of bed and starting your day.
You know the feeling: Being warm, cozy, wanting just FIVE more minutes.
I think of these words and get a sense of TRUE INNER DESIRE.
There is also this absolute GEM of a passage on work to be done.
"But it is necessary to take rest also!- It is necessary: however nature has fixed bounds to this too. She has fixed bounds both to eating and drinking, and yet thou goest beyond these bounds, beyond what is sufficient; yet in thy acts it is not so, but thou stoppest short of what thou canst do. So thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou wouldst love thy nature and her will. But those who love their several arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed and without food; but thou valuest thy own own nature less than the turner values the turning art, or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of money values his money, or the vainglorious man his little glory. And such men, when they have a violent affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to sleep rather than to perfect the things which they care for. " Such a powerful series of thoughts transferred PERFECTLY to paper. It is not a terrible burden or a CHORE to get up and live.
Think of this as something you owe to yourself.
You may make yourself better by CHOICE, why not indulge in what you can accomplish with your day?
If you loved yourself you would do so willingly and with fervor.
Outside of this short introduction, there are countless examples of truly inspiring quotes and thoughts.
I could go on for HOURS about how this has drastically made me a better person.
But i’ll allow you to go through the book and find what resonates most within you.
Cultivating The Strength To Bear Any Burden Or Hardship.
Mentally, this book isn’t a challenging read, nor is it so long it’s draining.
Yet, Meditations teaches you resilience and gives you the framework to become unphased by anything.
Most difficulties in life are so puzzling, abrupt, and painful that we don’t know how to deal with them.
All throughout the book, we are given small thoughts and stories.
Most quoted are the ones that show AUTHENTIC indifference as well as remarkable emotional strength.
As a man with so many millions of lives counting on his leadership, Marcus had been VERY introspective.
This ascends beyond normal thoughts of “how do I make the people love me.”
He thought of all aspects, how to act according to what he felt was good-natured.
Learning to remove his desire for things which he could not have, reflecting on what gives things TRUE value, and ultimately figuring out what makes a man truly powerful.
Control over one’s emotions and one’s thoughts is all that a man needs, according to Marcus.
A timeless sentiment: “For a Man to Conquer Himself Is the First and Noblest of All Victories.” Plato.
When applying this to your own life, you slowly realize how trivial a lot of problems are.
You also learn to stop worrying about things which you cannot control.
Meditations and Interpersonal relationships
Book Nine and Ten are the strongest passages for cultivating a mindset of non-judgement.
Especially the last passage in book nine about being offended by a man’s shameless conduct.
I think back to a lot when i feel disgust or unease about other people and their choices.
Sure, I could step in and say something, but honestly… it would just be a waste of my time.
If I value myself and don’t want to waste my time bickering, I just remind myself of these passages.
For me to be “good” or perhaps, “proper” there must be others who are my opposite, improper or bad to bring balance to the world.
But you can also extract value from figuring out how YOU want to act.
How you view others says a LOT about you to everyone else.
I think it’s a great way to reframe things
“Well, I conduct myself in according to what is good, obviously there must be those who DON’T… they’ll have their errors and mistakes corrected by nature soon enough.”
Wrapping up the post for Meditations with one last thought.
It’s incredibly weird to type these things out.
Honestly, this almost feels as if i have some school report for analyzing the practical use of Meditations.
Luckily though, it’s something which everyone can get practical benefit out of FREELY.
This is one of the FEW books I think that merit’s the
“You should read it at least once in your life.” Phrase
My good friend Mike told me that EXACTLY about the book “twelve rules for life.”
I knew it was going to be seriously beneficial.
Mike was right, and he has yet to ever wrong when it comes to chiming in on things.
This post is incredibly short.
I could write hundreds of stories or thoughts, but i think it’s best you experience it for yourself.
You can listen to Meditations for free on youtube:
If you prefer to read on your computer screen, it is free here.
Until next time, Toodles!
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