Marcus Aurelius
Book consists of 12 chapters, each is a collection of thoughts and ideas.
[11] Everything you do and say and think should be predicated on the possibility of your imminent departure from life.
[4] Don’t waste what remains of your life thinking about other people, unless you do so with reference to the welfare of the state —I mean wondering what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he’s saying, what he’s thinking, what his designs are, and so on, which distracts you from paying attention to your own command center. You have to exclude everything purposeless and random from the sequence of your thoughts, but especially and above all anything prompted by idle curiosity or ill will. You must get into the habit of restricting your thoughts to those that are such that if you were suddenly asked, “What are you thinking?” you could answer, frankly and without hesitation, “X” or “Y,” and it would immediately be clear from your reply that all your thoughts are guileless and kindly, the thoughts of a sociable creature who disdains pleasurable or any kind of self-indulgent fantasies and is untouched by rivalry, malice, suspicion, or anything else that one would blush to admit one had in mind.
[5] Never act reluctantly, selfishly, thoughtlessly, or with conflicting motives. Don’t embellish your thoughts with fancy language. Avoid garrulousness and officiousness. Also, let the god within you be the custodian of the creature that you are: a man, an elder, a statesman, a Roman, and a ruler who has taken up a post, but as one who’s expecting to be recalled from life and is ready to be released from service, without needing to swear an oath or call a human witness. Be joyful within and in need of no external assistance or peace provided by others. In other words, you must stand straight, not be straightened.
[14] Don’t be sidetracked anymore! You’re not going to read your notebooks, or your accounts of ancient Roman and Greek history, or the commonplace books you were saving for your old age. Head straight for your final goal and be your own savior, if you care for yourself, by abandoning vain hopes for the future while you still can.
[1] In its natural state, the situation of the ruler within us as regards the events of the world is such that it readily adapts itself to what’s feasible. It isn’t wedded to any particular material that’s proper specifically to it, but sets out with reservation to achieve its objectives, and converts everything that it encounters into material for itself. It’s like a bonfire overpowering the objects that are thrown onto it; a small fire would be extinguished by them, but a good blaze very quickly appropriates to itself all the objects that are piled on it, consumes them, and uses them to grow greater.
[2] Never act without purpose; make sure that all your actions conform to the philosophical principles that constitute the art of living.
[3] People try to find retreats for themselves in the countryside, by the sea, and in the mountains. A marked longing for such a haven has been a habit of yours too. But nothing could be more unphilosophical, given that you may retreat into yourself whenever you want. There’s no retreat more peaceful and untroubled than a man’s own mind, and this is especially true of a man who has inner resources which are such that he has only to dip into them to be entirely untroubled (and by “untroubled” I mean “composed”), so never stop allowing yourself to retreat there and be renewed. Make sure that these inner resources are concise and fundamental so that, when they present themselves to you, they are immediately sufficient to wash away every vexation once more and to send you back without resenting whatever it is that you’re returning to.6
After all, what is it that you resent? The fact that people aren’t virtuous? Recall the notions that rational beings are on this earth to help one another, that tolerance is an aspect of justice, and that people don’t deliberately do wrong.7 Remember also how many people spent their lives seeing others as their enemies, suspecting them, hating them, battling with them, only to be laid out for burial and burned to ashes—and put an end to your resentment. Do you also resent the lot that has been assigned you by the universe?
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So then, remember that you already have a little estate into which you can retreat, and make it your priority not to get agitated or tense. Better to be your own master and look on the world as a man, a human being, a citizen, and a creature doomed to die. Make sure that among the truths into which you’ll be dipping you have the following two perfectly available for reference: first, that the things of the world cannot affect the soul; they lie inert outside it, and only internal beliefs can disturb it. Second, that everything you see will shortly change and before long will cease to exist; and bear constantly in mind how many changes you personally have gone through in the past. “The universe is change, and life a supposition.”
[16] In ten days’ time or less, if you return to your principles and your devotion to reason, you’ll be regarded as a god by them, the men who now regard you as an animal, an ape.
[24] “Do little,” he says, “if you want to be content.” But wouldn’t it be better to do what’s necessary—everything the reason of a naturally social being requires, and in the manner in which it requires it? The upshot will be not only the contentment that comes from doing the right thing but also the contentment that comes from doing little. After all, most of our words and actions are unnecessary, and dispensing with them gives one more freedom and greater peace of mind. It follows that you should prod yourself every time by asking: Is this really necessary? And it’s important to dispense with not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts as well, because that will ensure that no redundant actions follow either.
[25] Try living the life of a good man and see how it too suits you—a man who’s gratified by the lot he’s been assigned by the universe and satisfied with the justice of his acts and the kindness of his character.
[47] If a god informed you that you were going to die tomorrow, or the day after at the latest, you’d hardly think it mattered whether it was tomorrow or the day after, at any rate unless you were hopelessly small- minded. It’s not as if there were much difference in time involved. By the same token, you should consider it an utterly trivial matter whether your life lasts for years or comes to an end tomorrow.
[5] They can’t admire you for perspicacity, but that’s all right: there are many other qualities for which “I wasn’t made that way” doesn’t provide you with an excuse. The qualities you can offer, then, are those that are entirely up to you: candor, dignity, endurance, indifference to pleasure, acceptance of your lot, frugality, kindness, self-reliance, unaffectedness, discretion, stateliness.8 Do you see how many you’re able to offer right now, without excusing yourself on the grounds of ineptitude and incompetence? And yet you persist, of your own free will, in doing worse than your best. Or is it innate ineptitude that compels you to grumble, to be stingy, to flatter, to blame your body, to be obsequious, to brag, to change your mind so often? No, most certainly not! You could have eliminated these faults a long time ago and been convicted, if at all, only of being rather slow and dull-witted. Yet even this can be worked on—as long as a person doesn’t disregard or even relish his stupidity.
[6] … A man who’s done good doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but goes on to the next good deed, as a vine goes on to bear grapes again in its season. That’s the goal to aim for, to be one of these men oneself, who do good without noticing it, …
[8] There are two reasons, then, why you should gladly accept whatever happens to you. First, because the experience happened to you, was prescribed for you, and was the product of a web somehow woven just for you way back in time, out of the most ancient causes.
[9] Don’t give up in disgust or weariness if your ability to act consistently on the basis of right principles doesn’t consolidate into a permanent habit. After every repulse, go back, and be happy if the majority of your actions are worthy of a human being.
[11] To what use am I now putting my soul? That’s the question to ask yourself all the time. And you should interrogate yourself: At this moment, what is occupying that part of me they call the command center?
[12] What follows is a way of understanding the kinds of things that are taken to be good by ordinary people. If one were thinking of the possession of things that are truly good (such as wisdom, moderation, justice, and courage), with those on his mind he wouldn’t be able to make sense of the saying about being “crowded by good things,” because it wouldn’t apply.
[13] I consist of cause and matter. Neither of these will perish into nothingness, just as they didn’t arise out of nothingness.
[28] … Be neither an actor nor a whore.
[31] Remind yourself what you’ve been through and what you’ve had the strength to endure, and that the story of your life is now coming to an end, your service completed. Remind yourself of all the admirable deeds you’ve witnessed, how many times you’ve overcome pleasure and pain, how many distinctions you’ve disdained, and how many discourteous people you’ve treated with courtesy.
[1] The physical substance of the universe is compliant and plastic, but there’s nothing inherent in the reason that directs the universe that could cause it to do wrong. Badness isn’t one of its qualities, nor does it do things badly, nor is anything made worse by it. Everything comes into existence and runs its course in accordance with its will.
[7] Find joy and rest in one thing alone: in moving from one socially useful act to another, while remaining mindful of God.
[11] When the pressure of circumstances somewhat disturbs your peace of mind, recover quickly and don’t lose your rhythm for longer than necessary. In any case, you’ll master the measure all the better by constantly returning to it.
[13] Vanity is terrifyingly good at derailing rational thought, and it’s when you think you’re engaged on important matters that you’re most under its spell.
[14] But anyone who values the rational and social soul no longer finds anything else deserving of his attention; his priority is the maintenance of his own soul in a rational and sociable condition, and ensuring that it keeps moving along these channels, and to this end he cooperates with others who are like him.
[23] Treat irrational animals, and things and objects in general, in a detached and generous manner, since you have the faculty of reason and they don’t. Treat human beings, who do have the faculty of reason, in a sociable manner.
[30] Keep yourself simple, good, guileless, dignified, unpretentious, devoted to justice, pious, kind, affectionate to others, and resolute in carrying out your proper tasks.
[31] Sober up, come back to yourself, and once you’ve aroused yourself again from sleep and understood that what was bothering you was no more than a dream, regard what you see now that you’re awake again as no different from what you were seeing in your dream.
[42] So all you need to do is determine which camp you’ll join. The director of the universe will make good use of you in either case and will incorporate you in his workforce, …
[47] You should bear in mind constantly that death has come to men of all kinds, men with varied occupations and various ethnicities, all the way down to Philistion, Phoebus, and Origanion.57 And then what about other types of people? We too will inevitably end up where so many eloquent orators have gone, so many distinguished philosophers (Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates), so many heroes of old, and so many generals and tyrants from more recent times. Add to these Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, other brilliant intellectuals, high-minded men, hard workers, men of ingenuity, self-confident men, men (like Menippus and his ilk) who mocked the very transience and impermanence of human life. Bear in mind, where all these men are concerned, that they are long dead and buried. Is there anything in this for them to fear? Or indeed for others, men whose very names are altogether lost? Only one thing is important: to behave throughout your life toward the liars and crooks around you with kindness, honesty, and justice.
[38] “It’s pointless to let mere things make you angry, since they lack the ability to care.”
[57] All you have to do is embrace your experiences, or in other words the destiny that’s been woven for you. After all, what could be more perfectly suited to you?
[67] … You may have resigned yourself to never being good at logic or physics,70 but don’t on that account despair of being self-reliant, modest, focused on the common good, and obedient to God.
[12] Whenever you find it difficult to wake up, remind yourself that doing socially useful work is proper to your constitution and your humanity, while sleeping is something you share with irrational animals as well.
[22] Pay attention to something: the object, the activity, the principle, the meaning. It’s right that you should be feeling like this, since you’d prefer to become good tomorrow than to be good today.
[47] If something external is causing you distress, it’s not the thing itself that’s troubling you but your judgment about it, and it’s within your power to erase that right now. And if it’s something internal to yourself, is anyone stopping you from looking at it in a more positive way? Likewise, if you’re distressed because you’re failing to do something that strikes you as sound, why not do it rather than indulge in distress? “But the obstacle is too strong for me.” In that case, there’s no need for distress, because you’re not responsible for your inability to act. “But my life isn’t worth living unless I get this thing done.” You’d better take your leave from this life, then, as kind in death as one who is still active, and at peace with those who stood in your way.
[4] Any transgression is a transgression against oneself. A wrongdoer harms himself by making himself a worse person.
[8] If you ever get to call yourself good, moral, honest, conscientious, amenable, and dignified, never exchange them for other labels or lose them. And, if you do lose them, recover them quickly.
[12] Where it’s within your power to consider what has to be done, there’s no need for guesswork. If you can see the way forward, take it without turning aside, and if you can’t, hold back and consult your best advisers.
[31] When you see Satyron or Eutyches or Hymen, think of a member of Socrates’s circle; when you see Eutychion or Silvanus, think of Euphrates; when you see Alciphron, think of Tropaeophorus; when you see Severus, think of Crito or Xenophon; when you see yourself, think of one of the Caesars; and do likewise in every instance. Then the following thought should occur to you: “Where are they now? Nowhere, or no place as such.” …
[33] … a person actually becomes better and more admirable by making correct use of his circumstances. …
[35] A healthy eye must see all that is visible and not say “No bright colors, please!” That would be a symptom of eye disease. A healthy ear or nose must be ready for everything that can be heard or smelled. A healthy stomach must be similarly ready for everything edible, as a mill is ready for everything it’s been made to grind. And so a healthy mind must be ready for everything that happens, but a mind that says, “I hope my children are safe,” or, “I’d like to be praised by everyone for everything I do,” is like an eye that wants only pale colors or teeth that want only soft foods.
[38] Remember that the puppet master controlling your strings is the power hidden within you. …
[35] Green grape, ripe grape, dried grape: every phase a change, not into nonexistence but simply into a state that didn’t exist at the time.
[1]… So, whenever it may be that you find yourself close to departure, if you relinquish everything else and honor only your command center, the god within you, and if what you fear isn’t that you’re going to stop living, but that you never started living in accord with nature, you’ll be a man worthy of the universe that gave you birth and you’ll no longer be a stranger in your own country, surprised by what happens day by day as though it were unexpected, and dependent on one person after another.
[19] It’s time to appreciate that you have within yourself something that’s stronger and more divine than the things that generate the passions in you and in general tug you around like a puppet.