5 Marcus Aurelius quotes worth putting into practice

A useful Marcus Aurelius quote gives you something to do when a familiar difficulty returns. Choose a passage, read the thought around it, and name one decision it could change today.

Here are five passages from Meditations for a crowded day, an insult, a correction, a postponed responsibility and a tempting rumour. Each comes with its book and section number, an explanation and a worked example. You can begin with whichever situation sounds most like yours.

All quotations below use George Long’s translation. The language is old-fashioned in places. The examples and exercises are our modern applications, not instructions Marcus wrote for these particular situations.

1. When your day is full: question the unnecessary task

Marcus begins this passage by considering the advice to occupy yourself with few things. He adds a qualification: do what reason and your social responsibilities require. The question is about removing needless activity while still doing your part. He extends it to unnecessary thoughts too. Today, that might mean noticing when you are rehearsing a task instead of doing it.

Imagine you have promised a friend help with a move, need to finish a piece of work and have spent half an hour reorganising your task list. Reorganising feels productive because it is easy to complete. It also delays the two things other people are relying on you for.

Write down the purpose of each task. “Help Sam carry the furniture” has a clear purpose. “Choose a nicer colour system for my list” may be optional today. Leave the list as it is, confirm when Sam needs you and start the first unfinished part of your work.

Try it: Before adding another task, ask what would happen if you left it undone today. Remove one item that has no meaningful consequence. Rest, care and time with people can be necessary too. Do not use the passage to turn every free hour into work.

2. When someone is unkind: keep their behaviour out of your reply

This short entry asks what retaliation does to the person carrying it out. If you answer dishonesty with dishonesty or humiliation with humiliation, you have adopted the conduct you objected to.

Suppose someone mocks your question in a group chat. You draft a reply pointing out an embarrassing mistake they made last week. It might win a laugh. It will also make humiliation your chosen way of dealing with disagreement.

Decide what needs protecting: your ability to ask a reasonable question, the accuracy of the answer, or a boundary about how people speak to you. A reply could be: “I’m asking because the instructions conflict. Can we clarify which version to use?” If the mockery continues, you can leave the exchange and raise it with the person responsible for the group.

Try it: Before sending the reply, underline the words that address the problem. Delete the words included only to embarrass someone. This does not require forgiving them immediately or staying in a conversation where you are being mistreated.

3. When you are corrected: check the evidence before defending yourself

The passage continues by putting truth ahead of remaining in error. Notice the condition: someone must be able to show him what is wrong. Changing your mind need not mean accepting every confident criticism.

You insist that a reservation is for Saturday. Your partner says it is Friday and opens the confirmation. Your first impulse is to explain why the booking page was confusing. That explanation may be accurate, but the immediate question has already been settled.

A useful response is: “You’re right. I read the date incorrectly. I’ll check whether we can change it.” If the evidence is unclear, name what would settle it, such as the confirmation email, the original message or a call to the venue. You do not have to decide who is generally better at remembering things.

Try it: Separate two questions: “What is the claim?” and “What evidence would change my mind?” If that evidence appears, update the plan out loud. A correction is easier for other people to use when they know you have accepted it.

4. When you keep preparing to improve: choose the act you are postponing

This entry turns an abstract discussion of character into a demand on conduct. It is a useful check when talking or reading about improvement has become a way to postpone an ordinary responsibility.

Perhaps you have been reading about being a more considerate friend. Meanwhile, you borrowed a book two months ago and still have not returned it. There is no need to design a new personal philosophy before arranging to give it back.

Send a specific message: “I still have your book. I can drop it off on Sunday afternoon, or leave it with you another time that works.” Put the book beside the things you will take. Follow through. The action is small, but it answers the actual obligation.

Try it: Complete this sentence: “If I acted on the quality I keep praising, I would ___ today.” Choose something observable, such as returning what you borrowed or giving someone the credit they earned. Thinking remains useful when a decision is complicated. This exercise is for the point at which you already know enough to begin.

5. Before passing something on: check whether you know it is true

Marcus pairs a standard for action with a standard for speech. A modern application of this standard is to pause between hearing something interesting and presenting it as a fact.

A colleague says someone on your team is about to leave. You are tempted to tell a friend because the news would explain several recent events. But a story fitting your suspicions does not verify it. You know that a colleague made a claim. You do not yet know that the claim is true.

If the information affects work you must plan, ask the responsible person about the planning question: “Who will be covering this project next month?” If it does not concern you, leave the rumour alone. Even a true detail can be private or needlessly hurtful to repeat.

Try it: Before forwarding a claim, identify its source and what you have checked. When you need to discuss uncertainty, make that uncertainty explicit. “I don’t know yet” is a complete, useful answer.

Turn one passage into tomorrow’s practice

Pick the passage that addresses a difficulty you are likely to meet. Write three lines. Here is a completed example using the passage about correction:

1. Situation: Someone points out a mistake in my work.
2. Question: What evidence would show whether they are right?
3. Action: Open the relevant document before explaining myself. If I made the mistake, acknowledge it and say what I will fix.

At the end of the day, add one observation: “I checked the document, found the wrong date and corrected it.” If you became defensive, record where that happened and what you could try next time. Avoid a verdict such as “I’m bad at Stoicism.” A specific observation gives you something to practise again.

Keep the book and section number with the quote. In a reference such as 6.21, the first number means Book 6 and the second means section 21. Read the whole section through the links above when you want to revisit its meaning. Different translations can use quite different wording.

Keep the passage close enough to remember

You can copy your chosen passage onto a bookmark or put your three-line plan beside your desk. Choose a place connected to the situation. A note next to your messaging app may be useful before a difficult reply. A bookmark may suit an evening reading habit.

If you prefer reminders on your phone, Stoic Widgets offers quote widgets for the iPhone Home Screen and lets you save favourite quotes. It is one way to bring a philosophical thought back into view. Reading the surrounding text and deciding how to act remain your part of the practice.

In our Stoic Widgets Internal Research Brief, 61% of consistent-use participants reported using Stoic quotes at least once on most days, compared with 23% of low-use or delayed-start participants. This describes what the two usage groups reported. It does not establish that the app created the habit, and the research did not test the five exercises above.

Based on internal pre-release product research across web, beta, and mobile users. Results are self-reported and preliminary. Participants were grouped by usage, so motivation and other differences may help explain the comparison. Research details

Keep reading

For a reading and reflection routine, try our beginner’s guide to practising Stoicism. When a difficult situation involves other people’s decisions, our guide to the dichotomy of control works through where your responsibility begins and ends.

About the writer

The Stoic Widgets Team

We make Stoic Widgets. WIDGET WORKS LLP publishes this magazine. This article includes links to our app and to original philosophical texts.