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

and he could express approbation without noisy display, and he possessed

much knowledge without ostentation.

10. From Alexander the grammarian, to refrain from fault-finding, and not

in a reproachful way to chide those who uttered any barbarous or

solecistic or strange-sounding expression; but dexterously to introduce

the very expression which ought to have been used, and in the way of

answer or giving confirmation, or joining in an inquiry about the thing

itself, not about the word, or by some other fit suggestion.

11. From Fronto I learned to observe what envy and duplicity and

hypocrisy are in a tyrant, and that generally those among us who are

called Patricians are rather deficient in paternal affection.

12. From Alexander the Platonic, not frequently nor without necessity to

say to any one, or to write in a letter, that I have no leisure; nor

continually to excuse the neglect of duties required by our relation to

those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occupations.

13. From Catulus, not to be indifferent when a friend finds fault, even

if he should find fault without reason, but to try to restore him to his

usual disposition; and to be ready to speak well of teachers, as it is

reported of Domitius and Athenodotus; and to love my children truly.

14. From my brother Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth, and to

love justice; and through him I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato,

Dion, Brutus; and from him I received the idea of a polity in which there

is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal

rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government

which respects most of all the freedom of the governed; I learned from

him also consistency and undeviating steadiness in my regard for

philosophy; and a disposition to do good, and to give to others readily,

and to cherish good hopes, and to believe that I am loved by my friends;

and in him I observed no concealment of his opinions with respect to

those whom he condemned, and that his friends had no need to conjecture

what he wished or did not wish, but it was quite plain.

15. From Maximus I learned self-government, and not to be led aside by

anything; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as in illness;

and a just admixture in the moral character of sweetness and dignity, and

to do what was set before me without complaining. I observed that

everybody believed that he thought as he spoke, and that in all that he

did he never had any bad intention; and he never showed amazement and

surprise, and was never in a hurry, and never put off doing a thing, nor

was perplexed nor dejected, nor did he ever laugh to disguise his

vexation, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate or suspicious.

He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready to forgive,

and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a man

who could not be diverted from right, rather than of a man who had been

improved. I observed, too, that no man could ever think that he was

despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man. He

had also the art of being humorous in an agreeable way.

16. In my father I observed mildness of temper, and unchangeable

resolution in the things which he had determined after due deliberation;

and no vain-glory in those things which men call honors; and a love of

labor and perseverance; and a readiness to listen to those who had

anything to propose for the common weal; and undeviating firmness in

giving to every man according to his deserts; and a knowledge derived

from experience of the occasions for vigorous action and for remission.

And I observed that he had overcome all passion for boys; and he

considered himself no more than any other citizen; and he released his

friends from all obligation to sup with him or to attend him of necessity

when he went abroad, and those who had failed to accompany him, by reason

of any urgent circumstances, always found him the same. I observed, too,

his habit of careful inquiry in all matters of deliberation, and his

persistency, and that he never stopped his investigation through being

satisfied with appearances which first present themselves; and that his

disposition was to keep his friends, and not to be soon tired of them,

nor yet to be extravagant in his affection; and to be satisfied on all

occasions, and cheerful; and to foresee things a long way off, and to

provide for the smallest without display; and to check immediately

popular applause and all flattery; and to be ever watchful over the

things which were necessary for the administration of the empire, and to

be a good manager of the expenditure, and patiently to endure the blame

which he got for such conduct; and he was neither superstitious with

respect to the gods, nor did he court men by gifts or by trying to please

them, or by flattering the populace; but he showed sobriety in all things

and firmness, and never any mean thoughts or action, nor love of novelty.

And the things which conduce in any way to the commodity of life, and of

which fortune gives an abundant supply, he used without arrogance and

without excusing himself; so that when he had them, he enjoyed them

without affectation, and when he had them not, he did not want them. No

one could ever say of him that he was either a sophist or a [home-bred]

flippant slave or a pedant; but every one acknowledged him to be a man

ripe, perfect, above flattery, able to manage his own and other men’s

affairs. Besides this, he honored those who were true philosophers, and

he did not reproach those who pretended to be philosophers, nor yet was

he easily led by them. He was also easy in conversation, and he made

himself agreeable without any offensive affectation. He took a reasonable

care of his body’s health, not as one who was greatly attached to life,

nor out of regard to personal appearance, nor yet in a careless way, but

so that through his own attention he very seldom stood in need of the

physician’s art or of medicine or external applications. He was most

ready to give without envy to those who possessed any particular faculty,

such as that of eloquence or knowledge of the law or of morals, or of

anything else; and he gave them his help, that each might enjoy

reputation according to his deserts; and he always acted conformably to

the institutions of his country, without showing any affectation of doing

so. Further, he was not fond of change nor unsteady, but he loved to stay

in the same places, and to employ himself about the same things; and

after his paroxysms of headache he came immediately fresh and vigorous to

his usual occupations. His secrets were not many, but very few and very

rare, and these only about public matters; and he showed prudence and

economy in the exhibition of the public spectacles and the construction

of public buildings, his donations to the people, and in such things, for

he was a man who looked to what ought to be done, not to the reputation

which is got by a man’s acts. He did not take the bath at unseasonable

hours; he was not fond of building houses, nor curious about what he ate,

nor about the texture and color of his clothes, nor about the beauty of

his slaves. [Footnote: 1] His dress came from Lorium, his villa on the

coast, and from Lanuvium generally. [Footnote: 2] We know how he behaved

to the toll-collector at Tusculum who asked his pardon; and such was all

his behavior. There was in him nothing harsh, nor implacable, nor

violent, nor, as one may say, anything carried to the sweating point; but

he examined all things severally, as if he had abundance of time, and

without confusion, in an orderly way, vigorously and consistently. And

that might be applied to him which is recorded of Socrates, that he was

able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too

weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong

enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a

man who has a perfect and invincible soul, such as he showed in the

illness of Maximus.

17. To the gods I am indebted for having good grandfathers, good parents,

a good sister, good teachers, good associates, good kinsmen and friends,

nearly everything good. Further, I owe it to the gods that I was not

hurried into any offence against any of them, though I had a disposition

which, if opportunity had offered, might have led me to do something of

this kind; but, through their favor, there never was such a concurrence

of circumstances as put me to the trial. Further, I am thankful to the

gods that I was not longer brought up with my grandfather’s concubine,

and that I preserved the flower of my youth, and that I did not make

proof of my virility before the proper season, but even deferred the

time; that I was subjected to a ruler and a father who was able to take

away all pride from me, and to bring me to the knowledge that it is

possible for a man to live in a palace without wanting either guards or

embroidered dresses, or torches and statues, and such-like show; but that

it is in such a man’s power to bring himself very near to the fashion of

a private person, without being for this reason either meaner in thought,

or more remiss in action, with respect to the things which must be done

for the public interest in a manner that befits a ruler. I thank the gods

for giving me such a brother, who was able by his moral character to

rouse me to vigilance over myself, and who at the same time pleased me by

his respect and affection; that my children have not been stupid nor

deformed in body; that I did not make more proficiency in rhetoric,

poetry, and the other studies, in which I should perhaps have been

completely engaged, if I had seen that I was making progress in them;

that I made haste to place those who brought me up in the station of

honor, which they seemed to desire, without putting them off with hope of

my doing it some other time after, because they were then still young;

that I knew Apollonius, Rusticus, Maximus; that I received clear and

frequent impressions about living according to nature, and what kind of a

life that is, so that, so far as depended on the gods, and their gifts,

and help, and inspirations, nothing hindered me from forthwith living

according to nature, though I still fall short of it through my own

fault, and through not observing the admonitions of the gods, and, I may

almost say, their direct instructions; that my body has held out so long

in such a kind of life; that I never touched either Benedicta or

Theodotus, and that, after having fallen into amatory passions, I was

cured, and though I was often out of humor with Rusticus, I never did

anything of which I had occasion to repent; that, though it was my

mother’s fate to die young, she spent the last years of her life with me;

that, whenever I wished to help any man in his need, or on any other

occasion, I was