Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (good books to read .txt) 📕

hold good to consist in the disposition to justice and the practice of

it, and in this to let thy desire find its termination.

35. If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness,

and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it, and what

is the harm to the common weal?

36. Do not be carried along inconsiderately by the appearance of things,

but give help [to all] according to thy ability and their fitness; and if

they should have sustained loss in matters which are indifferent, do not

imagine this to be a damage; for it is a bad habit. But as the old man,

when he went away, asked back his foster-child’s top, remembering that it

was a top, so do thou in this case also.

When thou art calling out on the Rostra, hast thou forgotten, man, what

these things are?—Yes; but they are objects of great concern to these

people—wilt thou too then be made a fool for these things? I was once a

fortunate man, but I lost it, I know not how.—But fortunate means that a

man has assigned to himself a good fortune: and a good fortune is good

disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions.

BOOK VI.

1. The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the

reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has

no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it.

But all things are made and perfected according to this reason.

2. Let it make no difference to thee whether thou art cold or warm, if

thou art doing thy duty; and whether thou art drowsy or satisfied with

sleep; and whether ill-spoken of or praised; and whether dying or doing

something else. For it is one of the acts of life, this act by which we

die: it is sufficient then in this act also to do well what we have in

hand (vi. 22, 28).

3. Look within. Let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its

value escape thee.

4. All existing things soon change, and they will either be reduced to

vapor, if indeed all substance is one, or they will be dispersed.

5. The reason which governs knows what its own disposition is, and what

it does, and on what material it works.

6. The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like [the wrongdoer].

7. Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social

act to another social act, thinking of God.

8. The ruling principle is that which rouses and turns itself, and while

it makes itself such as it is and such as it wills to be, it also makes

everything which happens appear to itself to be such as it wills.

9. In conformity to the nature of the universe every single thing is

accomplished; for certainly it is not in conformity to any other nature

that each thing is accomplished, either a nature which externally

comprehends this, or a nature which is comprehended within this nature,

or a nature external and independent of this (XL 1; VI. 40; VIII. 50).

10. The universe is either a confusion, and a mutual involution of

things, and a dispersion, or it is unity and order and providence. If

then it is the former, why do I desire to tarry in a fortuitous

combination of things and such a disorder? and why do I care about

anything else than how I shall at last become earth? and why am I

disturbed, for the dispersion of my elements will happen whatever I do?

But if the other supposition is true, I venerate, and I am firm, and I

trust in him who governs (IV. 27).

11. When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a

manner, quickly return to thyself, and do not continue out of tune longer

than the compulsion lasts; for thou wilt have more mastery over the

harmony by continually recurring to it.

12. If thou hadst a stepmother and a mother at the same time, thou

wouldst be dutiful to thy stepmother, but still thou wouldst constantly

return to thy mother. Let the court and philosophy now be to thee

stepmother and mother: return to philosophy frequently and repose in

her, through whom what thou meetest with in the court appears to thee

tolerable, and thou appearest tolerable in the court.

13. When we have meat before us and such eatables, we receive the

impression that this is the dead body of a fish, and this is the dead

body of a bird or of a pig; and again, that this Falernian is only a

little grape-juice, and this purple robe some sheep’s wool dyed with the

blood of a shell-fish: such then are these impressions, and they reach

the things themselves and penetrate them, and so we see what kind of

things they are. Just in the same way ought we to act all through life,

and where there are things which appear most worthy of our approbation,

we ought to lay them bare and look at their worthlessness and strip them

of all the words by which they are exalted. For outward show is a

wonderful perverter of the reason, and when thou art most sure that thou

art employed about things worth thy pains, it is then that it cheats thee

most. Consider then what Crates says of Xenocrates himself.

14. Most of the things which the multitude admire are referred to objects

of the most general kind, those which are held together by cohesion or

natural organization, such as stones, wood, fig-trees, vines, olives. But

those which are admired by men, who are a little more reasonable, are

referred to the things which are held together by a living principle, as

flocks, herds. Those which are admired by men who are still more

instructed are the things which are held together by a rational soul, not

however a universal soul, but rational so far as it is a soul skilled in

some art, or expert in some other way, or simply rational so far as it

possesses a number of slaves. But he who values a rational soul, a soul

universal and fitted for political life, regards nothing else except

this; and above all things he keeps his soul in a condition and in an

activity comformable to reason and social life, and he co-operates to

this end with those who are of the same kind as himself.

15. Some things are hurrying into existence, and others are hurrying out

of it; and of that which is coming into existence part is already

extinguished. Motions and changes are continually renewing the world,

just as the uninterrupted course of time is always renewing the infinite

duration of ages. In this flowing stream then, on which there is no

abiding, what is there of the things which hurry by on which a man would

set a high price? It would be just as if a man should fall in love with

one of the sparrows which fly by, but it has already passed out of sight.

Something of this kind is the very life of every man, like the exhalation

of the blood and the respiration of the air. For such as it is to have

once drawn in the air and to have given it back, which we do every

moment, just the same is it with the whole respiratory power, which thou

didst receive at thy birth yesterday and the day before, to give it back

to the element from which thou didst first draw it.

16. Neither is transpiration, as in plants, a thing to be valued, nor

respiration, as in domesticated animals and wild beasts, nor the

receiving of impressions by the appearances of things, nor being moved by

desires as puppets by strings, nor assembling in herds, nor being

nourished by food; for this is just like the act of separating and

parting with the useless part of our food. What then is worth being

valued? To be received with clapping of hands? No. Neither must we value

the clapping of tongues; for the praise which comes from the many is a

clapping of tongues. Suppose then that thou hast given up this worthless

thing called fame, what remains that is worth valuing? This, in my

opinion: to move thyself and to restrain thyself in conformity to thy

proper constitution, to which end both all employments and arts lead. For

every art aims at this, that the thing which has been made should be

adapted to the work for which it has been made; and both the vine planter

who looks after the vine, and the horsebreaker, and he who trains the

dog, seek this end. But the education and the teaching of youth aim at

something. In this then is the value of the education and the teaching.

And if this is well, thou wilt not seek anything else. Wilt thou not

cease to value many other things too? Then thou wilt be neither free, nor

sufficient for thy own happiness, nor without passion. For of necessity

thou must be envious, jealous, and suspicious of those who can take away

those things, and plot against those who have that which is valued by

thee. Of necessity a man must be altogether in a state of perturbation

who wants any of these things; and besides, he must often find fault with

the gods. But to reverence and honor thy own mind will make thee content

with thyself, and in harmony with society, and in agreement with the

gods, that is, praising all that they give and have ordered.

17. Above, below, all around are the movements of the elements. But the

motion of virtue is in none of these: it is something more divine, and

advancing by a way hardly observed, it goes happily on its road.

18. How strangely men act! They will not praise those who are living at

the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by

posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, this they

set much value on. But this is very much the same as if thou shouldst be

grieved because those who have lived before thee did not praise thee.

19. If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, do not think

that it is impossible for man: but if anything is possible for man and

conformable to his nature, think that this can be attained by thyself

too.

20. In the gymnastic exercises suppose that a man has torn thee with his

nails, and by dashing against thy head has inflicted a wound. Well, we

neither show any signs of vexation, nor are we offended, nor do we

suspect him afterwards as a treacherous fellow; and yet we are on our

guard against him, not however as an enemy, nor yet with suspicion, but

we quietly get out of his way. Something like this let thy behavior be in

all the other parts of life; let us overlook many things in those who are

like antagonists in the gymnasium. For it is in our power, as I said, to

get out of the way, and to have no suspicion nor hatred.

21. If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or

act rightly, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth, by which no man

was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and

ignorance.

22. I do my duty: other things trouble me not; for