Shadowing Practice: The Stoic Lesson of Marcus Aurelius' Crumbling Statue - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Okay, so there's a story about how they're restoring the famous Marcus Aurelius column in Rome.
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If you don't know about the column,
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it's a masterpiece of sculpture and carving depicting the 14 years that Marcus Aurelius spends at war with the Marco Mani tribes.
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And they put up this 94-foot column in his honor that still stands to this day.
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There's actually a stoic lesson in this because,
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yes, 19 centuries later, a monument to his accomplishments still stands.
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And even though it's a little worn down and needs some restoration,
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you might say that this disproves Marcus's reminders and meditations that posthumous fame doesn't last and no one will remember him.
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But I actually think the fact that it's still there is precisely the point.
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Because if you look at the top of this column,
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there's not a statue of Marcus Aurelius on top.
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It's actually St. Paul.
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In the 16th century, Pope Sixtus V decides to take the monument to Marcus Aurelius and reuse it for his own purposes.
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And in the end, that's what Marcus Aurelius' greatest accomplishment becomes,
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a pedestal for somebody else.
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And that is what Marcus is saying.
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That's what history does to all of us,
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even those of us famous enough to be remembered for one year or one century or 1,000 years.
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History takes us and it remixes and reuses us.
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It perverts us and undermines our legacy.
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It contradicts us, it absorbs us,
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and it uses us for our own purposes.
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On a long enough timeline,
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everyone's will and legacy is ignored.
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Their graves are lost and obscured.
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Their memory is written over.
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And we should remember this before it's too late.
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And let's say it didn't happen.
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Let's say it was still shiny and gleaming.
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Why would that matter?
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He says in meditations, Meditations people who are excited by posthumous fame forget
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that the people who remember them will die soon too and
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that those After them in turn until their memory passed from one to another like a candle flame
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Gutters and goes out and then he says suppose that that actually wasn't true.
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Perhaps you are remembered forever He says what good would that do you?
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He says I don't just mean when you're dead
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But in your own lifetime what use is praise except to make your lifestyle a little more comfortable?
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He's trying to remind himself that reputation,
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fame, impressing people, that doesn't matter.
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Who you are as a person,
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that's the only thing that counts.
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Who you are as a person to the people around you.
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Did you do good with the resources that you had?
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It's like the Shelley poem about Ozymandias, right?
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The statue falling over in the desert,
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two legs, the head there laying in the sand.
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A colossal wreck, he says, boundless and bare even though this person was so powerful and important in life,
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very little of it remains.
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Now this is not the state of Marcus Aurelius' monument.
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You can go see it, it's still standing there.
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I've seen it myself.
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And yet, the same stoic lesson is actually there if you look for it.
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Okay.
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So if he's saying that being remembered is not important,
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that posthumous fame is worthless,
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what is he saying that does matter?
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Well, he does address this in meditations too.
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He says, forget everything else.
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Keep hold of this alone and remember it.
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Each of us lives only now, this brief instant.
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The rest has been lived already or is impossible to see.
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The span we live is small,
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small as the corner of earth in which we live it,
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small as even the greatest renown,
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passed from mouth to mouth by short-lived stick figures,
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ignorant alike of themselves and those long dead.
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He's saying that all you have is this moment.
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All you have is who you are in this moment,
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creating some enormous legacy that other people get to live in,
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focusing on impressing people who you will never meet.
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What good will that do you?
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He's saying what matters is that you do good now,
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that you live a good life,
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that you live a good life as a good person.
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That's what Marcus Aurelius is striving to do in meditations.
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And the irony is in not caring about posthumism,
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in not caring about his accomplishments lasting,
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in just trying to be a good man,
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to concentrate on what he has to do as he writes in meditations,
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to fix his eyes on it,
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reminding himself that his tax is just to be a good human being and to do it,
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he says, without hesitation, to speak the truth as he sees it,
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with kindness and with humility and without hypocrisy,
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in that, ironically, he does create a real legacy and we are still talking about him today.
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Sometime around the year 170 AD,
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the most powerful man in the world sat down to write.
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His name was Marcus Aurelius.
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And miraculously, these writings survived.
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And within them are some of the greatest and wisest insights ever put down.
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Sometimes these insights are really obvious.
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They jump out off the page at you,
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but other ones you have to return to.
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You have to understand the deeper context.
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You have to understand what he meant,
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where he was coming from,
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why he would have been saying this to fully understand him.
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Sometimes you're just not old enough yet.
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Sometimes you just haven't read it enough times,
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which is why over the last couple of years,
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we developed this deep dive into Marcus Realizes Meditations.
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We really struggled to come up with a title for it,
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but we just call it How to Read Meditations.
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a guide, a course, a challenge,
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a companion for understanding one of the most important works ever put down in any language,
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in any era, by any person.
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How do you take the insights from 2,000 years ago from one of the most impressive people to ever live
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and apply them to your daily life?
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And we'd love to have you join us.
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We're digging into it here in the month of March.
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Mark Stavilius was born in March.
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We're calling it Mark Stavilius Month here at Daily Stoic.
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And we'd love to have you.
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And you can join us,
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sign up right now at dailystoic.com slash meditations.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will explore a thought-provoking perspective on legacy and the impermanence of fame through the insights of Marcus Aurelius. By practicing your English speaking skills using the transcript from the video "The Stoic Lesson of Marcus Aurelius' Crumbling Statue," you will enhance your understanding of stoicism while improving your pronunciation and rhythm. This practice is especially valuable for learners who enjoy the shadowing technique, as it connects the philosophical concepts to practical speaking exercises. You will learn to express complex ideas, which will enrich your vocabulary and enable you to articulate your thoughts on similar themes.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Restoration - the process of returning something to its former condition
- Monument - a structure established to commemorate a person or event
- Posthumous fame - recognition or notoriety gained after death
- Legacy - what a person leaves behind for future generations
- Purpose - the intended or desired aim of an action
- Reputation - the beliefs or opinions generally held about someone
- Absorb - to take in or incorporate
- Accomplishments - achievements or successes
Practice Tips
To make the most of your English speaking practice using the shadowing technique with this video, consider the following tips:
- Listen Actively: Play small segments of the transcript and pay close attention to the speaker’s tone and pace. This will help you catch nuances in pronunciation.
- Shadow Effectively: After listening, try to repeat what you hear immediately after the speaker. This shadow speech practice will help you mimic not only the words but also the rhythm and emotion of the narration.
- Record Yourself: Use a recording device to capture your shadowing practice. Listen to your pronunciation and compare it with the original video, so you can adjust accordingly.
- Focus on Intonation: Pay attention to how the speaker emphasizes certain words. Emulating this can enhance your overall communicative skills.
- Utilize a Shadowing Site: If you have access to interactive tools or resources, use these to further refine your listening and speaking abilities.
By employing these strategies, you will deepen your engagement with the material and develop a stronger command of the English language rooted in rich philosophical discussion.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be remembered · is ignored · are lost |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've seen · has been lived · haven't read |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · people who remember · people who you |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.