--- title: How to Live Your Best Life, According to a Roman Emperor description: How to live life fully and meaningfully. canonical: https://time.com/4101367/meditations-marcus-aurelius/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-07T05:01:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:27.944Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Live Your Best Life, According to a Roman Emperor og:description: 6 lessons to live life fully and meaningfully og:url: https://time.com/4101367/meditations-marcus-aurelius/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb52f9fc63c28414/69886fc08e060176494632ea/marcus-aurelius.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2789 og:image:height: 1569 og:image:alt: marcus-aurelius og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Live Your Best Life, According to a Roman Emperor twitter:description: 6 lessons to live life fully and meaningfully twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb52f9fc63c28414/69886fc08e060176494632ea/marcus-aurelius.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Live Your Best Life, According to a Roman Emperor > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=facd56d3-7120-4c48-918b-bcd822745b18&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Lee Daniels on the Women Who Changed His Life [Watch (HLS stream): Lee Daniels on the Women Who Changed His Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DUbV2mi7.m3u8) (2:37)  _Published 2015-04-16. “I never saw myself as a filmmaker because I didn’t know there were African American filmmakers, so I never really had anyone to look up to, because there weren’t any really,” says Daniels, a filmmaker and creator of the TV series Empire._ by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Nov 7, 2015 5:01 AM UTC  2nd century A.D., Roman art 2nd century A.D., Roman art Getty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Nov 7, 2015 5:01 AM UTC Marcus Aurelius has been read for 1800 or so years now and he’s arguably just as relevant today as he was when he was ruler of the Roman Empire. Aurelius, the ruler of the Roman Empire for almost two decades, was also the author of the immortal [_Meditations_](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=0812968255&asin-it=0812968255&asin-fr=0812968255&asin-de=0812968255&asin-uk=0812968255&asin-ca=0812968255&asin-com=0812968255). “Yet the title,” writes Gregory Hays in the introduction, “is one that Marcus himself would surely have rejected. He never thought of himself as a philosopher. He would have claimed to be, at best, a diligent student and a very imperfect practitioner of a philosophy developed by others.” Everyone who reads Meditations—from elementary school children to [presidents](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/08/bill-clinton-favorite-books/)—takes away some lessons. Be wary though, the book presents a dim view of human life. To understand [_Meditations_](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=0812968255&asin-it=0812968255&asin-fr=0812968255&asin-de=0812968255&asin-uk=0812968255&asin-ca=0812968255&asin-com=0812968255), we must first understand the role of philosophy in ancient life. While there was certainly an academic side to philosophy back then it also had a more practical side expected to provide a design for living—”a set of rules to live one’s life by.” A need not met by ancient religion, “which privileged ritual over doctrine and provided little in the way of moral and ethical guidelines.” Philosophy was expected to fill the gap. “The questions that Meditations tries to answer are metaphysical and ethical ones,” Hays writes. These are timeless questions that we are still asking. Why are we here? How can I cope with the stresses and pressures of daily life? How can I do what is right? How can I cope with loss and pain? How can I handle misfortune? How do we live when we know that one day we won’t? Book one, a special section entitled Debts and Lessons, is “distinguished from the rest of the work by its autobiographical nature.” It consists of seventeen entries in which Marcus Aurelius reflects upon what he has learned from various influential individuals in his life. Here are some lessons we can draw from book one. Do Your Own Work --- > “” --- Read Attentively --- > “” --- The Greatest Compliment --- > “” --- The Ruthlessness of Good Families --- > “” --- Staying on the Path --- > “” --- From his adopted father, Marcus Aurelius learned: --- > “” --- **Still curious?** [_Meditations_](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=0812968255&asin-it=0812968255&asin-fr=0812968255&asin-de=0812968255&asin-uk=0812968255&asin-ca=0812968255&asin-com=0812968255) is part of the [Stoic Reading List](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/04/the-stoic-reading-list/). **_Read next:_** [**_A Philosopher’s Guide to Happiness_**](http://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/) **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/08/marcus-aurelius-debts-and-lessons/)**_._** **Join over 60,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I want you to experience my life, and I think that that's the purest form of art, is to experience what I experience. I was bullied. As a kid or forever. I learned to not go to the bathroom from the time that I was in kindergarten through sixth grade, because I was too afraid to go into the bathroom. That's how bullied I was. That's real. That's very, very real. I felt like an outsider when I was a kid. When I finally embrace that this is what I wanted to do I look at everybody else as outsiders if you're on my train then come on aboard. You know Precious wasn't an outsider you know these are people that I know these are people that are real to me these are people that I grew up with. You know the people in Empire. But it was music that played through my mind that kept me alive when I thought I was gonna get shot. Monster's Ball. I'm Cecil Gaines. I'm the new butler. The Butler. These are, they aren't outsiders. They are people like, and that's my world that I live in. And if you don't understand it then you're an outsider. [ MUSIC ] I never saw myself as a filmmaker because there, I didn't know that there were African American filmmakers, there were black filmmakers or makers of color. So I never really had someone to look up to or someone to aspire to be because there weren't any really. Boom. Cut. These two. African American women really inspired me to do what I do because they believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. Susan Taylor, from Essence magazine, and I was in my 20's. She saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. A lady named Cynthia Robinson Oredugba. Who was the first African American agent at William Morris some 35 years ago, 40 years ago. They're not famous, famous, but they're very famous in my eyes. I felt recognized for the first time in my life when Spike Lee, he pulled me to the aside and he said, I don't think you realize how you've changed the face of television. I had a moment to reflect and think, oh wow, oh wow, holy crap wow. I passed that guy, I've got to live up to something now. Yeah. Is that crazy that, you know, you. 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