40 Hidden Lessons From Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
May 3, 2026 · 46 min · 15 segments
You think you’ve read Meditations, but the deeper truths in Marcus Aurelius’…
May 3, 2026 · 46 min · 15 segments
You think you’ve read Meditations, but the deeper truths in Marcus Aurelius’…
Ryan HolidayHost
One of the things that Gregory Hayes notes at the beginning of his translation of Meditations, which I missed on my first few readings, I missed not only his observation, but I, I missed what was so obviously not there, sort of like the dog that didn't bark, is that Marcus Aurelius never says he is a Stoic.
We don't have any definitive proof that Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic philosopher.
All we really have is his thinking, which aligns with Stoic philosophy, and of course, his way of living, which is very, very Stoic.
As Epictetus says, "We don't talk about our philosophy, we embody it." That's what makes Marcus Aurelius a Stoic.
He wasn't saying, "This is the Stoic orthodoxy." When Seneca talks about how he would quote a bad author even if the line is good, that he, he reads from all the schools of philosophy, Marcus does this, too.
What Hayes speculates is that if you were to ask Marcus Aurelius what he was, he doubts that he would say, "Oh, I am a Stoic." He would say, "I am a philosopher." Where I would say, actually, I think it's a better guess that he would say, "I am studying philosophy." He's not interested in labels, he's not interested in giving himself honors.
It, it is striking when you think about it, that we can relate to Meditations at all.
I mean, here's a book written 2,000 years ago, not for publication, in Greek, by an emperor, god-king, who owns slaves, who has an arranged marriage, who heads this enormous bloodthirsty empire.
In so many ways, we should be like, "What is this guy talking about? What does this have to do with me? I, what's going on?" His life, his, his inner thoughts should be incomprehensible to us, and yet it is precisely because of the specificity of that that Marcus Aurelius is so universal and relatable.
And I think that's the achievement of Meditations, which is that somehow, because of the earnestness, because of the vulnerability, because of the struggle of it, the inner life of this unfathomable man becomes comprehensible and relatable and inspiring and accessible to us.
It's like how the, the most specific comedy somehow becomes the most accessible and, in some ways, the most timeless.
He's writing for an audience of one, and yet manages to write, in the end, for an audience not just cumulatively of the millions, to all of us all this time later.
Sometime around the year 170 AD, the most powerful man in the world sat down to write.
He had no idea that you and I would ever see what he was writing, and miraculously, these writings survived, a- and, and within them are some of the greatest and wisest insights ever put down.
You have to understand what he meant, where he was coming from, why he would've been saying this to fully understand them.
Which is why o- over the last couple years we developed this deep dive into Marcus Aurelius' meditation, a guide, a course, a, a challenge, a companion for understanding one of the most important works ever put down in any language, in any era, by any person.
One of the things that Gregory Hayes notes at the beginning of his translation of Meditations, which I missed on my first few readings, I missed not only his observation, but I, I missed what was so obviously not there, sort of like the dog that didn't bark, is that Marcus Aurelius never says he is a Stoic.
We don't have any definitive proof that Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic philosopher.
All we really have is his thinking, which aligns with Stoic philosophy, and of course, his way of living, which is very, very Stoic.
As Epictetus says, "We don't talk about our philosophy, we embody it." That's what makes Marcus Aurelius a Stoic.
He wasn't saying, "This is the Stoic orthodoxy." When Seneca talks about how he would quote a bad author even if the line is good, that he, he reads from all the schools of philosophy, Marcus does this, too.
What Hayes speculates is that if you were to ask Marcus Aurelius what he was, he doubts that he would say, "Oh, I am a Stoic." He would say, "I am a philosopher." Where I would say, actually, I think it's a better guess that he would say, "I am studying philosophy." He's not interested in labels, he's not interested in giving himself honors.
It, it is striking when you think about it, that we can relate to Meditations at all.
I mean, here's a book written 2,000 years ago, not for publication, in Greek, by an emperor, god-king, who owns slaves, who has an arranged marriage, who heads this enormous bloodthirsty empire.
In so many ways, we should be like, "What is this guy talking about? What does this have to do with me? I, what's going on?" His life, his, his inner thoughts should be incomprehensible to us, and yet it is precisely because of the specificity of that that Marcus Aurelius is so universal and relatable.
And I think that's the achievement of Meditations, which is that somehow, because of the earnestness, because of the vulnerability, because of the struggle of it, the inner life of this unfathomable man becomes comprehensible and relatable and inspiring and accessible to us.
It's like how the, the most specific comedy somehow becomes the most accessible and, in some ways, the most timeless.
He's writing for an audience of one, and yet manages to write, in the end, for an audience not just cumulatively of the millions, to all of us all this time later.
Sometime around the year 170 AD, the most powerful man in the world sat down to write.
He had no idea that you and I would ever see what he was writing, and miraculously, these writings survived, a- and, and within them are some of the greatest and wisest insights ever put down.
You have to understand what he meant, where he was coming from, why he would've been saying this to fully understand them.
Which is why o- over the last couple years we developed this deep dive into Marcus Aurelius' meditation, a guide, a course, a, a challenge, a companion for understanding one of the most important works ever put down in any language, in any era, by any person.
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