Marcus Aurelius on Not Overthinking It
user profile
ObviousState
 September 12 2023
more_horiz




    In Meditations, Aurelius distills the central pillars and tenets of stoic philosophy. Although it was essentially a journal and never intended for a general readership, it has become one of the most widely read philosophical works in the world. Here's a free online version if you want to check it out.


    So I tend to overthink things. My ability to make decisions is sometimes paralyzed by my consideration of endlessly branching unknowns. This has become more pronounced in recent years, perhaps due to the increasing chaos of the world, perhaps due to the mounting responsibilities of age. Aurelius has been a real source of wisdom for me, and this quotation is the kick in the pants I sometimes need to get off the "but what if?" train.


    Soren Kierkegaard similarly observed that "life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." The future remains uncertain always, and so I will inevitably make choices that in hindsight were foolish or wrong. But, as cliché as it is, making any choice is better than no choice at all. Arm yourself with as much wisdom as you can gather, but when it comes down to it, you have to choose as best as you can and live "forwards." Like Kierkegaard, Aurelius was clearly a deep and passionate thinker. Think of all of the endlessly branching thoughts that he had to explore before arriving at each and every single epiphany worth writing down in his journals. I'm sure he knew what it was like to overthink and understood the necessity of spurring yourself to just do the thing you instinctively know is right.


    In my illustration, the voluminous text of Meditations spills out of an open book, forming a river of overwhelming concepts. A rider crosses the river over a bridge engraved with pictograms representing the four pillars of stoicism (Courage, Justice, Temperance and Wisdom) as well as three central stoic concepts: Memento Mori ("Remember Mortality"), Amor Fati ("Love Fate"), and the Inner Citadel.


    For more details on the pictograms, read my first Aurelius post below.






    marcus aurelius stoicism artwork illustration philosophy integriy morality
    Filter By: