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

that a man cannot lose a thing if he has it not.

15. Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the Cynic Monimus

is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what was said, if a man

receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.

16. The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it

becomes an abscess, and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as

it can. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of

ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other

things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to itself

when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with the

intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. In

the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered

by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says

anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows any act of its

own and any movement to be without an aim, and does anything

thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being right that

even the smallest things be done with reference to an end; and the end of

rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most ancient

city and polity.

17. Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux,

and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to

putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame

a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which

belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream

and vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after—fame

is oblivion. What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing,

and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon within

a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures,

doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not

feeling the need of another man’s doing or not doing anything; and

besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming

from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally,

waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a

dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded.

But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually

changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the

change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to

nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.

This in Carnuntum.

BOOK III.

1. We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and

a smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into

the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain

whether the understanding will still continue sufficient for the

comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which

strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he

shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and

imagination and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will

not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the

measure of our duty, and clearly separating all appearances, and

considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else

of the kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason,—all this is

already extinguished. We must make haste, then, not only because we are

daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the

understanding of them cease first.

2. We ought to observe also that even the things which follow after the

things which are produced according to nature contain something pleasing

and attractive. For instance, when bread is baked some parts are split at

the surface, and these parts which thus open, and have a certain fashion

contrary to the purpose of the baker’s art, are beautiful in a manner,

and in a peculiar way excite a desire for eating. And again, figs, when

they are quite ripe, gape open; and in the ripe olives the very

circumstance of their being near to rottenness adds a peculiar beauty to

the fruit. And the ears of corn bending down, and the lion’s eyebrows,

and the foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars, and many other

things,—though they are far from being beautiful if a man should examine

them severally,—still, because they are consequent upon the things which

are formed by nature, help to adorn them, and they please the mind; so

that if a man should have a feeling and deeper insight with respect to

the things which are produced in the universe, there is hardly one of

those which follow by way of consequence which will not seem to him to be

in a manner disposed so as to give pleasure. And so he will see even the

real gaping jaws of wild beasts with no less pleasure than those which

painters and sculptors show by imitation; and in an old woman and an old

man he will be able to see a certain maturity and comeliness; and the

attractive loveliness of young persons he will be able to look on with

chaste eyes; and many such things will present themselves, not pleasing

to every man, but to him only who has become truly familiar with Nature

and her works.

3. Hippocrates, after curing many diseases, himself fell sick and died.

The Chaldaei foretold the deaths of many, and then fate caught them too.

Alexander and Pompeius and Caius Caesar, after so often completely

destroying whole cities, and in battle cutting to pieces many ten

thousands of cavalry and infantry, themselves too at last departed from

life. Heraclitus, after so many speculations on the conflagration of the

universe, was filled with water internally and died smeared all over with

mud. And lice destroyed Democritus; and other lice killed Socrates. What

means all this? Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, thou art

come to shore; get out. If indeed to another life, there is no want of

gods, not even there; but if to a state without sensation, thou wilt

cease to be held by pains and pleasures, and to be a slave to the vessel,

which is as much inferior as that which serves it is superior: for the

one is intelligence and deity; the other is earth and corruption.

4. Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when

thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility. For

thou losest the opportunity of doing something else when thou hast such

thoughts as these,—What is such a person doing, and why, and what is he

saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and

whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of

our own ruling power. We ought then to check in the series of our

thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of

all the over-curious feeling and the malignant; and a man should use

himself to think of those things only about which if one should suddenly

ask, What hast thou now in thy thoughts? with perfect openness thou

mightest immediately answer, This or That; so that from thy words it

should be plain that everything in thee is simple and benevolent, and

such as befits a social animal, and one that cares not for thoughts about

pleasure or sensual enjoyments at all, nor has any rivalry or envy and

suspicion, or anything else for which thou wouldst blush if thou shouldst

say that thou hadst it in thy mind. For the man who is such, and no

longer delays being among the number of the best, is like a priest and

minister of the gods, using too the [deity] which is planted within him,

which makes the man uncontaminated by pleasure, unharmed by any pain,

untouched by any insult, feeling no wrong, a fighter in the noblest

fight, one who cannot be overpowered by any passion, dyed deep with

justice, accepting with all his soul everything which happens and is

assigned to him as his portion; and not often, nor yet without great

necessity and for the general interest, imagining what another says, or

does, or thinks. For it is only what belongs to himself that he makes the

matter for his activity; and he constantly thinks of that which is

allotted to himself out of the sum total of things, and he makes his own

acts fair, and he is persuaded that his own portion is good. For the lot

which is assigned to each man is carried along with him and carries him

along with it. And he remembers also that every rational animal is his

kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to man’s nature; and a

man should hold on to the opinion not of all, but of those only who

confessedly live according to nature. But as to those who live not so, he

always bears in mind what kind of men they are both at home and from

home, both by night and by day, and what they are, and with what men they

live an impure life. Accordingly, he does not value at all the praise

which comes from such men, since they are not even satisfied with

themselves.

5. Labor not unwillingly, nor without regard to the common interest, nor

without due consideration, nor with distraction; nor let studied ornament

set off thy thoughts, and be not either a man of many words, or busy

about too many things. And further, let the deity which is in thee be the

guardian of a living being, manly and of ripe age, and engaged in matter

political, and a Roman, and a ruler, who has taken his post like a man

waiting for the signal which summons him from life, and ready to go,

having need neither of oath nor of any man’s testimony. Be cheerful also,

and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give. A man

then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.

6. If thou findest in human life anything better than justice, truth,

temperance, fortitude, and, in a word, anything better than thy own

mind’s self-satisfaction in the things which it enables thee to do

according to right reason, and in the condition that is assigned to thee

without thy own choice; if, I say, thou seest anything better than is,

turn to it with all thy soul, and enjoy that which thou hast found to be

the best. But if nothing appears to be better than the Deity which is

planted in thee, which has subjected to itself all thy appetites, and

carefully examines all the impressions, and, as Socrates said, has

detached itself from the persuasions of sense, and has submitted itself

to the gods, and cares for mankind; if thou findest everything else

smaller and of less value than this, give place to nothing else, for if

thou dost once diverge and incline to it, thou wilt no longer without

distraction be able to give the preference to that good thing which is

thy proper possession and thy own; for it is not right that anything of

any other kind, such as praise from the many,