Book · 180
Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
The Roman emperor's private notebook — written to himself in Greek, never meant to be published — became the Stoic canon's most-cited text 1,800 years later.
What does Reddit think of Meditations?
r/Stoicism carries 1,000 of them, which tells you where this book lives and who its audience actually is. The sentiment is broadly positive overall, though the sub breakdown reveals a gap: r/selfimprovement runs warm (57 mentions), r/askphilosophy stays neutral (78 mentions), r/philosophy sits measured at 60. The academic crowd treats it as philosophically modest next to Seneca; the self-improvement crowd finds it life-changing. The threads surface two distinct readings. r/Stoicism's ↑408 comment corrects the most common misread: Meditations is a practice notebook, not a finished philosophy. Every line is Marcus addressing himself after a failure — anger, irritability, craving approval — which is why the same territory recurs in Book 4 and Book 9 and Book 12 without resolution. The ↑485 irony thread works differently: the emperor who expected to be forgotten gets read centuries later. r/philosophy's ↑344 comment documents that Beck, Ellis, and Hayes all credited the Stoics directly when building CBT. That lineage is not speculative.
Evidence, not a rating
Recommendation receipt
A compact, source-linked answer derived from the same Reddit sample and editorial synthesis as this page.
Editorial summary
r/Stoicism carries 1,000 of them, which tells you where this book lives and who its audience actually is. The sentiment is broadly positive overall, though the sub breakdown reveals a gap: r/selfimprovement runs warm (57 mentions), r/askphilosophy stays neutral (78 mentions), r/philosophy sits measured at 60. The academic crowd treats it as philosophically modest next to Seneca; the self-improvement crowd finds it life-changing.
Read if
Read it if you want philosophy that was never meant to be philosophy — Marcus wrote it to himself, which is why it doesn't perform. The CBT lineage documented in r/philosophy makes it worth the time even for readers skeptical of ancient sources. Grief, anger, status anxiety: those are the recurring triggers in the thread data. Treat it as a practice notebook rather than a cover-to-cover read and the repetition stops being a problem.
Skip or borrow first if
The repetition is structural: Marcus covers the same failures in Book 4 and Book 9 and Book 12 without resolution, which reads as tedious when you go cover-to-cover.
Strongest published evidence
“In Book 12 of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius states, "It never ceases to amaze me: We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own."”r/philosophy source · score 836 ↗
Dissent & strongest caveat
The repetition is structural: Marcus covers the same failures in Book 4 and Book 9 and Book 12 without resolution, which reads as tedious when you go cover-to-cover.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Stoic practice as daily drill rather than finished doctrine
- · The irony of a man who wrote about obscurity becoming canonical
- · Anger and frustration at others as recurring personal failures
- · CBT and modern psychology tracing lineage to Aurelius
- · Self-examination over public performance
Common praise
- + The ↑836 Book 12 line — loving yourself more than others but caring more about their opinion — stops readers cold and changes how they filter feedback.
- + r/philosophy's ↑344 thread documents that Beck, Ellis, and Hayes all cited the Stoics when building CBT; Meditations has receipts.
- + r/Stoicism's ↑408 correction that this is a practice notebook reframes every repetitive passage: he's drilling, not lecturing.
- + r/selfimprovement readers at 57 mentions report genuine shifts in outlook, which is not the kind of claim that shows up for most philosophy books.
Common criticism
- − The repetition is structural: Marcus covers the same failures in Book 4 and Book 9 and Book 12 without resolution, which reads as tedious when you go cover-to-cover.
- − The translation question never dies on r/Stoicism — the wrong edition gives you Victorian piety instead of Marcus's blunt self-corrections.
Who it's for
Read it if you want philosophy that was never meant to be philosophy — Marcus wrote it to himself, which is why it doesn't perform. The CBT lineage documented in r/philosophy makes it worth the time even for readers skeptical of ancient sources. Grief, anger, status anxiety: those are the recurring triggers in the thread data. Treat it as a practice notebook rather than a cover-to-cover read and the repetition stops being a problem. If you want Stoic doctrine rather than a personal journal, Epictetus is the sharper read.
Mentions over time
Which Reddit comments matter for Meditations?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“In Book 12 of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius states, "It never ceases to amaze me: We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own."
“Totally cool if you don't agree with me, but I think you are projecting something onto me that is actually rooted in Seneca's tendency to talk in somewhat overlapping or even contradictory terms. In Letter 33, he does talk about the futility of maxims but in Letters 94 and 95, he talks of the import…
“Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. You'll walk away with an idea of what the point of life is, and it will inspire you to reach your potential. My outlook on life has improved infinitely since reading it.
“I find it funny reading “meditations” because Marcus Aurelius always speaks about how no one will remember him and he will be forgotten. But here I am a few 100 years later, reading about him
“For starters let your ex go. Having been in his position, you begging for him back is only hurting him more and if you actually loved him you would respect his decision and allow him and you to move on while you deal with your issues. Second, love requires sacrifice. If you are unwilling to sacrifi…
“He wasn’t a Sage? Remember that the Meditations are not his journal; they’re his practice notebook. Every line of that book is him addressing himself over some failure. Recurring failures for him are (seemingly that is, based on frequency of showing up in the book) anger and getting annoyed at peopl…
“Sorry for your loss. I don't have recommended readings, but I do have some personal experience. Death of a loved one is always hard. I lost many loved ones but my dad absolutely destroyed me. I had just (year prior) came back from 9 months of living with Buddhist monks in the jungle of SE Asia 7to…
“Yes, and many of the 50s psychologist (Erin Beck is CBT) were classic trained and well aware of Aurelius. Beck has specifically noted the stoics as influential in his work, as has Albert Ellis and Steven Hayes (all big names in psychology). This is why I don't understand the hate modern pseudo phi…
Convinced? Pick up Meditations
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with Meditations — counted from the comments, not curated.
Enchiridion
Epictetus
A freed slave's 2,000-year-old field manual for deciding what you control — and letting go of everything else.
Letters from a Stoic
Seneca
Seneca writes 124 letters to a friend about grief, fear, and wasted time — and 163 Reddit mentions later, r/Stoicism still treats them as the first thing to read.
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
Donald Robertson
Donald Robertson follows Marcus Aurelius from student to emperor, using the Meditations as a manual for cognitive therapy anyone can apply today.
The Daily Stoic
Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday turns Stoic passages into a 366-day reading habit, and r/Stoicism's 250 mentions can't decide if that's a gateway or a ceiling.
How to Be a Stoic
Massimo Pigliucci
A philosopher uses Epictetus as a conversation partner to translate Stoic practice into a secular, atheism-compatible framework for daily life.
Discourses
Epictetus
A freed slave lectures Roman students on why your opinions, not your circumstances, are the only thing making you miserable.
Meditations — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually think of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius?+
Broadly positive. The selfimprovement crowd (57 mentions, warm) is more enthusiastic than the philosophy crowd (r/askphilosophy, 78 mentions, neutral). The most-upvoted quotes are the Book 12 self-opinion line (↑836) and the irony of Marcus predicting his own oblivion (↑485). Nobody argues it's bad; the neutral pockets reflect that some readers find it philosophically modest.
Is Meditations a journal or a philosophy book?+
The ↑408 r/Stoicism post settles this: it's a practice notebook, not finished doctrine. Marcus is addressing his own recurring failures — anger, impatience, craving approval. Treating it as polished philosophy sets up the wrong expectations. r/askphilosophy's neutral 78 mentions suggest the academic crowd knows this distinction and weights the book accordingly.
Is Meditations relevant to modern psychology or therapy?+
Yes, directly. The ↑344 r/philosophy thread traces it to Beck, Ellis, and Hayes — all major figures who cited Stoic sources when building CBT. That lineage is documented, not speculated. If you work in or around therapy, the intellectual debt to Aurelius is real.
Should I read Meditations before or after Seneca's Letters?+
Meditations is the easier entry. The ↑635 r/Stoicism thread argues Seneca is analytically more complex, and that reading Marcus through a Senecan lens risks misattributing ideas.