Some Things Never Change

Think Tank #57

Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is an interesting book. It was written by a Roman emperor, which automatically makes it pretty badass, and it was never intended for publication at all. It was Marcus Aurelius’s journal, full of little notes to himself about how to conduct his life.

The notes were penned sometime between 161 and 180 AD, and yet its contents are so universal, so timeless that the whole thing could have been written yesterday.

Its topics include success, management, confidence, dealing with annoying people, prying oneself out of bed every morning, fear of death, belief in God. Nothing has changed at all. Technology may have changed, but human nature hasn’t changed a bit in two thousand years.

How did he manage this? Most books don’t translate this well. A novel written in the 1970s can seem dated today. I think it’s because he never intended for anyone to read the book but himself. Linguistic trends change over the years, but Aurelius wasn’t concerned with trends; he was writing to himself.

Remembering this changes the book’s impact. Reading Meditations, I often imagine Marcus Aurelius as a guy who had it all figured out. He was a celebrated emperor—one of the most powerful men in history. The book is exceptionally wise; he seems to have the answers to all of life’s nagging questions.

What’s interesting, though, is that these things were reminders. Perhaps he read them in the morning, or after having a particularly stressful day. Meditations is repetitive. How sure of himself could he have really been, if these same nagging thoughts kept popping up again and again?

I guess it’s comforting that people have always had these burning questions, and no one, even Marcus Aurelius, has been able to permanently quiet them.