Status Updates From Meditations: The Annotated ...

Let nature do its job without worrying, find your purpose within yourself, and fulfill your role like a cog in a machine—as one part of the whole.

It’s hard to see a man who ignores what is happening in other people’s souls as unhappy. Conversely, everyone who ignores what is happening in his own soul can only be unhappy.

(II,4) "... a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never retun." Are we aware of our limited time, and do we give it the merit it deserves? (II,16) " The soul of a man does violence to itself..." ; (II,17) "...and nothing is evil which is according to nature." Who are we to ascribe morals to this world?

After having finished Book I, I have a new found outlook on my influences. I don't think that I am as hyper aware of the people and things around me and in my life as Marcus was when writing these meditations. I like his philosophy of looking at the best traits of the people around you and drawing them to you, we all do this anyway, but sometimes it's a good idea to look at who you are and what you are made of.