“Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.”
~ Marcus Aurelius from Meditations
Not only is Marcus Aurelius one of my heroes, he’s also one of history’s leading Stoic Philosophers. Stoic philosophy. You know, one of the classic Hellenistic philosophies—right there with Epicureanism and Cynicism.
Huh? Whether or not you’ve heard of Stoicism, you’ve probably met one of its leading thinkers: Marcus Aurelius—he’s the old emperor in the movie Gladiator. In this Note, we’re going to take a quick look at the historical context in which Aurelius wrote Meditations and the Stoic philosophy that influenced his thinking. From there, we’ll jump into some of my favorite Big Ideas from the classic Emperor-Philosopher’s journals.