Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: The Stoic Ideal

"Fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round - remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped."
Gentleman Jim Corbett, world champion boxer and world class stoic

This is the official YouTube channel of Dr. Michael Sugrue.

Please consider subscribing to be notified of future videos, as we upload Dr. Sugrue's vast archive of lectures.

Dr. Michael Sugrue earned his BA at the University of Chicago and PhD at Columbia University.

[crisgon]

Rest in peace King. Thank you for everything Professor. You may have never met me but you have been my companion over these last few years. This lecture is now bittersweet with your passing. You have started a fire in me for Philosophy I didn't know I was capable of burning. I hope one day to be able to teach the next generation also.

[PhoenixF]

"All men suffer, but not all men pity themselves."

Damn, that hits hard.

[Eldon_Dice]

Today we lost a great man whose words changed our way of thinking and being. This lecture, especially, changed my life. Your physical being is gone, but your thoughts and words are with us all in this section of YouTube. RIP.

[yohannesbewketu]

I learned that he died today, I came to listen and pay tribute to this lecture. Rest in peace Legend.

[RebelTemptations]

Imagine the amount of hours this man has put into reading and studying and yet he gives it to us all for free! What a truly remarkable era we live in, so happy to find a gem channel like this!

[Known_Stranger_]

"Do not preach your philosophy, embody it"

Marcus Aurelias is the perfect example of this quote.

[crispinrovere]

RIP. This could be the best video on all of YouTube.

[svengalia]

I regret not being able to do this earlier - you will live on in my memory!

[joe]

This lecture got uploaded by another account and gathered millions of views. Glad he has his own channel now and is getting the credit he deserves.

[yidingyang]

This lecture has changed my life. I'm highly neurotic and have difficulty coping with minor problems, but the way that Professor Sugrue presents Marcus Aurelius has challenged me to hold myself to higher standards. Whenever I have difficulty sleeping at night, I listen to this lecture like a bedtime story and it never gets old. I have been reading Stoic literature but none of them are as inspirational as this talk. Thank you for sharing this with the world.

[ArlYT]

“You can’t help but feel like at the end of his life he must have felt relieved. That the terrible crushing burden of this loneliness - a man that has no equals and no friends, a man that has nothing but philosophy to guide him - death must have been a great release. It’s like getting the evening off after you’ve put in your turn guarding the camp. And instead of becoming an obscure and unimportant figure, he’s become a symbol in the history of western philosophy.”

I had the privilege of being a student of Dr. Sugrue’s at Ave Maria and only learned that he had these online video lectures today when I heard of his passing. It’s fitting that the legacies left with these lectures allows him to become the modern day version of that symbol of philosophy that he describes of Marcus Aurelius, even after death. RIP

[matthewlambert]

Thanks for making the world a little better. Rest in peace.

[JoeySonal]

This man's command of the English language is so good. No notes to look at, just spoke and embodied the topic of philosophy that he loves, as he taught. Had me saying woooow at the end of the video.

[LukeMlsna]

05:30 - The wise man fears only abdicating his moral responsibility.

07:19 - Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "greatness is the perception that virtue is enough."

10:22 - Lord Action said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And that's generally speaking, true. The difficulty with that generalization... is Marcus Aurelius.

11:49 - Marcus Aurelius is the one example of an absolute ruler who behaves himself in such a way as not to disgrace himself.

12:34 - Imagine anything that the Brauns desiring emotional irrational parts of your souls want, and now imagine that you can have it.

14:46 - He's not afraid of being dead. He's not afraid of being in pain. He's not afraid to have people laugh at him. He's only afraid of doing what's wrong. He's only afraid of making chaos of his soul.

15:58 - It's a standing reproach to our self-indulgence.

16:08 - Marcus wrote this manuscript without intending to have it published. After his death he wanted to have it burned.

16:40 - Marcus Aurelius writes a book to himself, because he's the loneliest man in the world.

20:00 - Yet we ought not to pity Marcus Aurelius, because if he looked at our lives he would pity us. Of that he said "well I'd pity you back if I didn't think that was disrespectful."

20:22 - Think about what it takes to be something like Marcus Aurelius. We shall not see his like again.

24:14 - What's unnerving about this is that there's not the slightest taint of hypocrisy in it. He not only says this stuff, he acts this stuff. He not only talks the talk he walks the walk, and he does it and he does it under worse and more difficult circumstances, than you failed to do it! And yet he still likes us.

25:11 - Are you weary of enduring the bad men of the world? The gods aren't and they made them. Are you really weary of enduring the bad men of the world... especially given that you're one of them?

26:46 - Even in a palace it is possible to live well.

41:57 - All people suffer, but not all people pity themselves.

[nabilshadofficial]

A sudden shock from the comment section, I didn't know this great teacher of humanity is no more, Rest in peace.I was just rewatching this masterpiece for some academic purposes, Mankind will remember your contribution.

[jtpotts]

RIP Dr. This lecture is a gem 💎:
“Marcus Aurelius let us know that all people suffer, but that not all people pity themselves. Marcus Aurelius lets us know that all men die, but that not all men die whining.”

[alpbugra]

I love how many times he says "if you stop and think about it". It's a powerful piece of advice if you stop and think about it

[PKAnon]

> This is the official YouTube channel of Dr. Michael Sugrue.
I have been dying to read these words.

[yaxomoxay]

Listening this on the day of his death to commemorate this great teacher. He changed many lives.

[cbwavy]

The fact that he's giving an expert structured lecture without any notes is blowing my mind