the sexy, popular emperors all come from that period. Marcus Aurelius , who I'm a big fan of, from that period. Then that takes us to 284 AD, the guy we mentioned, Diocletian, who rebuilds the state. Emperors drop the first citizen mask, this perception of the way, and we'll talk about this, the persona that's
but, I think, capture stillness in its own unique way. Marcus Aurelius writes, "To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea stills around it." So what I thought I would do today-- I'm not going to walk you through the book.
And so they're saying events are objective. Marcus Aurelius says, there is no good or bad-- there's only perception. There's only what we think about things.
But I'm confident in my own abilities that if it is possible, I can do it. Marcus Aurelius says this line. He's saying, if it's humanly possible and you're human, then you can do it, right?
And the other is, am I doing the best possible job that I can do? Marcus Aurelius seems to be the most accessible.
And the other is, am I doing the best possible job that I can do? Marcus Aurelius is how I got into it.
Other times, the people come out 'cause they hate the emperor, and they drag the emperor out and cut his nose off or So just like Marcus Aurelius , it's sa- same name two generations later.
And "Meditations," by the way, is effectively a war journal. While Marcus Aurelius , who was the most powerful man on the planet at the time-- emperor of Rome-- was on a military campaign. And he would write these entries to do exactly this-- to remind himself that he was just a man, he was going to die,
Hold it for a count of four. And this is done by Marcus Aurelius , who's a famous stoic, who made this famous years and years ago.
And the other is, am I doing the best possible job that I can do? One of the famous lines about Marcus Aurelius is from Matthew Arnold, who was a Christian scholar and writer.
either-- Stachelski-- he had a picture of him on his desk for his rest of the time at the Patriots because this is My favorite stoic quote is from Marcus Aurelius .
And how do you practice or develop that sense of memento mori? I have a quote on my refrigerator that's from Marcus Aurelius . And "Meditations," by the way, is effectively a war journal.
And it might seem weird as a writer that I would start the day by writing, but it's actually kind of just a warm-up. What's really interesting about philosophy is that that's what Marcus Aurelius ' "Meditations" was. It's one of the few philosophical books that we have that wasn't published as a book.
It was popular with the Greeks and Romans. And one of the most famous practitioners, Marcus Aurelius , who's the old guy in "Gladiator" that Joaquin Phoenix's character kills. Philosophy is a loaded word for a lot of people.
They're $32. I'm sure you can find them here. My favorite long quote-- too long to read to you now-- by Marcus Aurelius , who was a stoic philosopher and the Emperor of Rome.
Now, it's mostly pretentious, confusing, and complicated academic debates, right? So I focus on stoicism, specifically on Marcus Aurelius , who is at the time of writing his book "Meditations," which mine is partially based on, is this totally unique historical figure.
have to be true to yourself and like I don't allow that noise to distract me. We were talking um earlier about stoicism. I think like Marcus Aurelius 's meditations is so informative on so many levels. I mean here you have somebody who was literally an emperor and he's writing this journal in a tent in a
It's probably not partying, or going to nightclubs, or something like that. And Memento Mori means "remember death." And there's a quote on the back from Marcus Aurelius .
He talks about what the meaning of life is, and meditation, and how to make yourself feel good every day. And it's incredible. It's almost like a modern "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius . Because this is a guy who's in the arena, he's making music, he's making hits.
It's very old-- 2,000-plus years old in various iterations. And I would say that you can start in many places, whether it's Marcus Aurelius ' "Meditations," or the "Moral Letters to Lucilius," the letters of Seneca.
And what's really cool about stoicism-- Well, we can talk about stoicism a little bit more in a minute. But stoicism, the three most prominent stoics are Marcus Aurelius , who I just said was the emperor, Epictetus, who was a former slave. So you have the most powerful man in the world, and then a totally powerless man.
Other times, the people come out 'cause they hate the emperor, and they drag the emperor out and cut his nose off or This emperor, Caracalla, now that's his nickname. His reigning name is Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
Other times, the people come out 'cause they hate the emperor, and they drag the emperor out and cut his nose off or provinces, like, there's this explosion in the number of people called Aurelius , because that was his Roman family name.
Other times, the people come out 'cause they hate the emperor, and they drag the emperor out and cut his nose off or Um, and so when you acquired citizenship from that edict, you became an Aurelius .
I'll leave such soporific matters to you in your dusty grave, but as to your wish, I not only accept it as my command, Something I noticed recently, I started reading little bits of more like ancient literature, like Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus, like stoic philosophers.
in certain situations? Yeah. Sure. Well, the big one is the one that I based-- So the book is based on a quote from Marcus Aurelius . There's a long quote, but the short version of it is, "the impediment to action advances action.