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

arrogant, suspecting, plotting, wishing for some to die, grumbling about

the present, loving, heaping up treasure, desiring consulship, kingly

power. Well, then, that life of these people no longer exists at all.

Again, remove to the times of Trajan. Again, all is the same. Their life

too is gone. In like manner view also the other epochs of time and of

whole nations, and see how many after great efforts soon fell and were

resolved into the elements. But chiefly thou shouldst think of those whom

thou hast thyself known distracting themselves about idle things,

neglecting to do what was in accordance with their proper constitution,

and to hold firmly to this and to be content with it. And herein it is

necessary to remember that the attention given to everything has its

proper value and proportion. For thus thou wilt not be dissatisfied, if

thou appliest thyself to smaller matters no further than is fit.

33. The words which were formerly familiar are now antiquated: so also

the names of those who were famed of old, are now in a manner antiquated,

Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Leonnatus, and a little after also Scipio and

Cato, then Augustus, then also Hadrianus and Antoninus. For all things

soon pass away and become a mere tale, and complete oblivion soon buries

them. And I say this of those who have shone in a wondrous way. For the

rest, as soon as they have breathed out their breath, they are gone, and

no man speaks of them. And, to conclude the matter, what is even an

eternal remembrance? A mere nothing. What then is that about which we

ought to employ our serious pains? This one thing, thoughts just, and

acts social, and words which never lie, and a disposition which gladly

accepts all that happens, as necessary, as usual, as flowing from a

principle and source of the same kind.

34. Willingly give thyself up to Clotho [one of the fates], allowing her

to spin thy thread into whatever thing she pleases.

35. Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that

which is remembered.

36. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom

thyself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much

as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For

everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But

thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a

womb: but this is a very vulgar notion.

37. Thou wilt soon die, and thou art not yet simple, nor free from

perturbations, nor without suspicion of being hurt by external things,

nor kindly disposed towards all; nor dost thou yet place wisdom only in

acting justly.

38. Examine men’s ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of

things they avoid, and what kind they pursue.

39. What is evil to thee does not subsist in the ruling principle of

another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of thy corporeal covering.

Where is it then? It is in that part of thee in which subsists the power

of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form [such]

opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it, the poor

body, is cut, burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let

the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let

it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to

the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives

contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither

according to nature nor contrary to nature.

40. Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one

substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one

perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things

act with one movement; and how all things are the co-operating causes of

all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread

and the contexture of the web.

41. Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to

say (I. C. 19).

42. It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to

subsist in consequence of change.

43. Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a

violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away,

and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.

44. Everything which happens is as familiar and well known as the rose in

spring and the fruit in summer; for such is disease, and death, and

calumny, and treachery, and whatever else delights fools or vexes them.

45. In the series of things, those which follow are always aptly fitted

to those which have gone before: for this series is not like a mere

enumeration of disjointed things, which has only a necessary sequence,

but it is a rational connection: and as all existing things are arranged

together harmoniously, so the things which come into existence exhibit no

mere succession, but a certain wonderful relationship (VI. 38; VII. 9;

VII. 75, note).

46. Always remember the saying of Heraclitus, that the death of earth is

to become water, and the death of water is to become air, and the death

of air is to become fire, and reversely. And think too of him who forgets

whither the way leads, and that men quarrel with that with which they are

most constantly in communion, the reason which governs the universe; and

the things which they daily meet with seem to them strange: and consider

that we ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep, for even in

sleep we seem to act and speak; and that we ought not, like children who

learn from their parents, simply to act and speak as we have been taught.

47. If any god told thee that thou shalt die to-morrow, or certainly on

the day after to-morrow, thou wouldst not care much whether it was on the

third day or on the morrow, unless thou wast in the highest degree mean-spirited; for how small is the difference. So think it no great thing to

die after as many years as thou canst name rather than to-morrow.

48. Think continually how many physicians are dead after often

contracting their eyebrows over the sick; and how many astrologers after

predicting with great pretensions the deaths of others; and how many

philosophers after endless discourses on death or immortality; how many

heroes after killing thousands; and how many tyrants who have used their

power over men’s lives with terrible insolence, as if they were immortal;

and how many cities are entirely dead, so to speak, Helice and Pompeii

and Herculaneum, and others innumerable. Add to the reckoning all whom

thou hast known, one after another. One man after burying another has

been laid out dead, and another buries him; and all this in a short time.

To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are,

and what was yesterday a little mucus, to-morrow will be a mummy or

ashes. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature,

and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is

ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it

grew.

49. Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but

it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

Unhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I,

though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain,

neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing

as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have

continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a

misfortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in all cases call that

a man’s misfortune which is not a deviation from man’s nature? And does a

thing seem to thee to be a deviation from man’s nature, when it is not

contrary to the will of man’s nature? Well, thou knowest the will of

nature. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being just,

magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions

and falsehood; will it prevent thee from having modesty, freedom, and

everything else, by the presence of which man’s nature obtains all that

is its own? Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation

to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear

it nobly is good fortune.

50. It is a vulgar, but still a useful help towards contempt of death, to

pass in review those who have tenaciously stuck to life. What more then

have they gained than those who have died early? Certainly they lie in

their tombs somewhere at last, Cadicianus, Fabius, Julianus, Lepidus, or

any one else like them, who have carried out many to be buried, and then

were carried out themselves. Altogether the interval is small [between

birth and death]; and consider with how much trouble, and in company with

what sort of people, and in what a feeble body this interval is

laboriously passed. Do not then consider life a thing of any value. For

look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is

before thee, another boundless space. In this infinity then what is the

difference between him who lives three days and him who lives three

generations?

51. Always run to the short way; and the short way is the natural:

accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason.

For such a purpose frees a man from trouble, and warfare, and all

artifice and ostentatious display.

BOOK V.

1. In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be

present,—I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I

dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for

which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie

in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?—But this is more pleasant.—

Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or

exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the

ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their

several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a

human being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which is according

to thy nature?—But it is necessary to take rest also.—It is necessary.

However, Nature has fixed bounds to this too: she has fixed bounds to

eating and drinking, and yet thou goest beyond these bounds, beyond what

is sufficient; yet in thy acts it is not so, but thou stoppest short of

what thou canst do. So thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou

wouldst love thy nature and her will. But those who love their several

arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed and without food; but

thou valuest thy own nature less than the turner values the turning art,

or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of money values his money, or

the vainglorious man his little glory. And such men, when they have a

violent affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to