Meditations

A private notebook, not a treatise, which is why it still reads as usable practice rather than philosophy history; it is the other serious contender for the number one slot. Its core moves (separate what you control from what you do not, watch the story you attach to events) are the same moves modern CBT teaches.

The chapter guide

You control your judgments and your actions and nothing else, you will die soon, and the only sane response is to do the work in front of you well and treat other people as kin.

1. Choosing the translation

   Hays gives short, blunt, modern sentences; Hard and Waterfield give better scholarly annotation; the free Long translation is Victorian.

2. Book 1: Debts and Lessons

   A list of every person who taught Marcus something, with what each one taught.

3. Book 2.1: ‘When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be…’

   Pre-load your expectations for difficult people so their behaviour does not knock you sideways.

4. Book 5.1: The getting-out-of-bed passage

   Marcus argues with himself about why he does not want to get up and reminds himself he was made to work.

5. The dichotomy of control (recurring, esp. Books 4, 6, 8, 12)

   Events are not in your power; your judgments about them are, and the judgment is where the suffering lives.

6. ‘The impediment to action advances action; what stands in the way becomes the way’ (Book 5.20)

   Obstacles are raw material for the next right action, not reasons to stop.

7. Memento mori: mortality passages (Books 2, 3, 4, 12)

   You could leave life right now; let that determine what you do and say.

8. Book 4.3: The retreat into yourself / the inner citadel

   People seek retreats in the countryside; you can retreat into your own mind at any moment.

9. ‘The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury’ (Book 6.6)

   Do not let another person’s behaviour dictate yours.

10. Book 6.7 and throughout: do the task in front of you, then the next one

    Concentrate on what is actually before you and do it with full attention and dignity.

11. Books 7–9: on pain, others’ faults, and humans being made for cooperation

    Pain is opinion, others’ faults are not yours to carry, and we exist for one another.

12. Book 11: on offensive people, tragedy and comedy, and the gifts of Apollo

    Practical notes on tolerating people and on art as instruction.

13. Book 12 and the closing passages

    You have played your part; leave the stage graciously.

14. The repetition across all twelve books

    Marcus circles the same ten or so ideas hundreds of times in slightly different words.

15. Risk: the duty and self-reproach passages

    Repeated instructions to stop making excuses and get on with your work.

16. Universality check

    Written by a Roman emperor in Greek, in a pantheist and providential frame.

17. Alternative considered and rejected: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

    A compiled collection of Naval Ravikant’s tweets and podcast remarks on wealth and happiness, edited by Eric Jorgenson.

Scorecard

Universality

5 of 5

Evidence

4 of 5

Reread value

5 of 5