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

universal: this might be sufficient. But further thou wilt observe this

also as a general truth, if thou dost observe, that whatever is

profitable to any man is profitable also to other men. But let the word

profitable be taken here in the common sense as said of things of the

middle kind [neither good nor bad].

46. As it happens to thee in the amphitheatre and such places, that the

continual sight of the same things, and the uniformity make the spectacle

wearisome, so it is in the whole of life; for all things above, below,

are the same and from the same. How long then?

47. Think continually that all kinds of men and men of all kinds of

pursuits and of all nations are dead, so that thy thoughts come down even

to Philistion and Phoebus and Origanion. Now turn thy thoughts to the

other kinds [of men]. To that place then we must remove, where there are

so many great orators, and so many noble philosophers, Heraclitus,

Pythagoras, Socrates; so many heroes of former days, and so many generals

after them, and tyrants; besides these, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes,

and other men of acute natural talents, great minds, lovers of labor,

versatile, confident, mockers even of the perishable and ephemeral life

of man, as Menippus and such as are like him. As to all these consider

that they have long been in the dust. What harm then is this to them; and

what to those whose names are altogether unknown? One thing here is worth

a great deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice, with a benevolent

disposition even to liars and unjust men.

48. When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those

who live with thee; for instance, the activity of one, and the modesty of

another, and the liberality of a third, and some other good quality of a

fourth. For nothing delights so much as the examples of the virtues, when

they are exhibited in the morals of those who live with us and present

themselves in abundance, as far as is possible. Wherefore we must keep

them before us.

49. Thou art not dissatisfied, I suppose, because thou weighest only so

many litrae and not three hundred. Be not dissatisfied then that thou

must live only so many years and not more; for as thou art satisfied with

the amount of substance which has been assigned to thee, so be content

with the time.

50. Let us try to persuade them [men]. But act even against their will,

when the principles of justice lead that way. If however any man by using

force stands in thy way, betake thyself to contentment and tranquillity,

and at the same time employ the hindrance towards the exercise of some

other virtue; and remember that thy attempt was with a reservation

[conditionally], that thou didst not desire to do impossibilities. What

then didst thou desire?—Some such effort as this.—But thou attainest

thy object, if the things to which thou wast moved are [not]

accomplished.

51. He who loves fame considers another man’s activity to be his own

good; and he who loves pleasure, his own sensations; but he who has

understanding considers his own acts to be his own good.

52. It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be

disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to

form our judgments.

53. Accustom thyself to attend carefully to what is said by another, and

as much as it is possible, be in the speaker’s mind.

54. That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.

55. If sailors abused the helmsman, or the sick the doctor, would they

listen to anybody else; or how could the helmsman secure the safety of

those in the ship, or the doctor the health of those whom he attends?

56. How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone

out of it.

57. To the jaundiced honey tastes bitter, and to those bitten by mad dogs

water causes fear; and to little children the ball is a fine thing. Why

then am I angry? Dost thou think that a false opinion has less power than

the bile in the jaundiced or the poison in him who is bitten by a mad

dog?

58. No man will hinder thee from living according to the reason of thy

own nature: nothing will happen to thee contrary to the reason of the

universal nature.

59. What kind of people are those whom men wish to please, and for what

objects, and by what kind of acts? How soon will time cover all things,

and how many it has covered already.

BOOK VII.

1. What is badness? It is that which thou hast often seen. And on the

occasion of everything which happens keep this in mind, that it is that

which thou hast often seen. Everywhere up and down thou wilt find the

same things, with which the old histories are filled, those of the middle

ages and those of our own day; with which cities and houses are filled

now. There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.

2. How can our principles become dead, unless the impression [thoughts]

which correspond to them are extinguished? But it is in thy power

continuously to fan these thoughts into a flame. I can have that opinion

about anything which I ought to have. If I can, why am I disturbed? The

things which are external to my mind have no relation at all to my mind.

—Let this be the state of thy affects, and thou standest erect. To

recover thy life is in thy power. Look at things again as thou didst use

to look at them; for in this consists the recovery of thy life.

3. The idle business of show, plays on the stage, flocks of sheep, herds,

exercises with spears, a bone cast to little dogs, a bit of bread into

fishponds, laborings of ants and burden-carrying, runnings about of

frightened little mice, puppets pulled by strings—[all alike]. It is thy

duty then in the midst of such things to show good humor and not a proud

air; to understand however that every man is worth just so much as the

things are worth about which he busies himself.

4. In discourse thou must attend to what is said, and in every movement

thou must observe what is doing. And in the one thou shouldst see

immediately to what end it refers, but in the other watch carefully what

is the thing signified.

5. Is my understanding sufficient for this or not? If it is sufficient, I

use it for the work as an instrument given by the universal nature. But

if it is not sufficient, then either I retire from the work and give way

to him who is able to do it better, unless there be some reason why I

ought not to do so; or I do it as well as I can, taking to help me the

man who with the aid of my ruling principle can do what is now fit and

useful for the general good. For whatsoever either by myself or with

another I can do, ought to be directed to this only, to that which is

useful and well suited to society.

6. How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to

oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long

been dead.

7. Be not ashamed to be helped; for it is thy business to do thy duty

like a soldier in the assault on a town. How then, if being lame thou

canst not mount up on the battlements alone, but with the help of another

it is possible?

8. Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it

shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest

for present things.

9. All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and

there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing. For things

have been co-ordinated, and they combine to form the same universe

[order]. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one god who

pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, [one] common reason

in all intelligent animals, and one truth; if indeed there is also one

perfection for all animals which are of the same stock and participate in

the same reason.

10. Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole;

and everything formal [causal] is very soon taken back into the universal

reason; and the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.

11. To the rational animal the same act is according to nature and

according to reason.

12. Be thou erect, or be made erect (III. 5).

13. Just as it is with the members in those bodies which are united in

one, so it is with rational beings which exist separate, for they have

been constituted for one co-operation. And the perception of this will be

more apparent to thee if thou often sayest to thyself that I am a member

of the system of rational beings. But if thou sayest that thou art a

part, thou dost not yet love men from thy heart; beneficence does not yet

delight thee for its own sake; thou still dost it barely as a thing of

propriety, and not yet as doing good to thyself.

14. Let there fall externally what will on the parts which can feel the

effects of this fall. For those parts which have felt will complain, if

they choose. But I, unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am

not injured. And it is in my power not to think so.

15. Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the gold,

or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this, Whatever any one

does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.

16. The ruling faculty does not disturb itself; I mean, does not frighten

itself or cause itself pain. But if any one else can frighten or pain it,

let him do so. For the faculty itself will not by its own opinion turn

itself into such ways. Let the body itself take care, if it can, that it

suffer nothing, and let it speak, if it suffers. But the soul itself,

that which is subject to fear, to pain, which has completely the power of

forming an opinion about these things, will suffer nothing, for it will

never deviate into such a judgment. The leading principle in itself wants

nothing, unless it makes a want for itself; and therefore it is both free

from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not disturb and impede

itself.

17. Eudaemonia [happiness] is a good daemon, or a good thing. What then

art thou doing here, O imagination? Go away, I entreat thee by the gods,

as thou didst come, for I want thee not. But thou art come according to

thy old fashion. I am not angry with thee: only go away.

18. Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without change?

What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And

canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? and canst thou

be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else

that is