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The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius put his training as an orator to good use, crafting beautiful turns of phrase to express timeless wisdom in his journal.
“The universe is change and life is opinion,” goes one of his most memorable lines.
Marcus penned short, memorable epigrams like this to recall whenever he faltered in life, often linking together important lessons.
This one was a mashup between the chief ideas of two philosophers Marcus respected: the Stoic Epictetus and the presocratic Heraclitus.
Heraclius emphasized that impermanence was the only constant. “No man steps into the same river twice,” he said.
Epictetus insisted no external thing could be good or bad; our thoughts make the world what it is.
Equipped with this mashup, Marcus remained steady at the helm of the Roman State as the world threw disaster after disaster his way.
Based on his record, it seems to have kept him grounded. How many epigrams do you have in your toolbox?