Marcus Aurelius: Meditations

Meditations was not written in deliberate sequence nor requiring a consecutive reading.

Epictetus was most influential on Marcus’ thinking.

Book I

Decency and a mild temper

Piety, generosity, the avoidance of wrong; also simplicity of living

Tolerate pain and feel few needs; work with my own hands; be deaf to malicious gossip

A man can combine intensity and relaxation

Self-mastery, immune to any passing whim

Book II

Those who fail to attend to the motions of their own soul are necessarily unhappy

Theophrastus says that offences of lust are graver than those of anger: because it is clearly some sort of pain and involuntary spasm which drives the angry man to abandon reason, whereas the lust-led offender has given in to pleasure and seems somehow more abandoned and less manly in his wrongdoing

You may leave this life at any moment

Death and life, fame and ignominy, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty – all these come to good and bad alike, but they are not in themselves either right or wrong: neither then are they inherent good or evil

What is death? It is nothing more than a function of nature

No one can lose either the past of the future – how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?

Both the longest-lived and the earliest to die suffer the same loss.

In man’s life his time is a mere instant

The only lasting fame is oblivion

Nothing harmful is in accordance with nature

Book III

If dementia sets in … our comprehension of the world and our ability to pay proper attention will fade before we do

Train yourself to think only those thoughts such that in answer to the sudden question ‘What is in your mind now?’ you could say with immediate frankness whatever it is

This renders the man unsullied by pleasures, unscathed by any pain, untouched by any wrong, unconscious of any wickedness

He bears in mind to the kinship of all rational beings

One who has taken his post like a soldier waiting for the Retreat from life to sound, and ready to depart, past the need for any loyal oath or human witness

Which has withdrawn itself, as Socrates used to say, from all inducements of the senses

Never regard as a benefit to yourself anything which will force you to some point to break your faith

Each of us lives only in the present moment, a mere fragment of time

And nobody is able to stop you

Pure, at peace, ready to depart, in unforced harmony with his fate

Book IV

No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind

Things cannot touch the mind: they are external and inert; anxieties can only come from your internal judgment

The universe is change: life is judgment

Death, just as birth, is a mystery of nature: first a combination, then a dissolution, or the same elements. Certainly no cause for shame

Always have these two principles in readiness. First, to do only for the benefit of mankind. Second, to change your ground for justice and the common good

While you live become good

Run right on to the line: straight

Everything in any way beautiful has its beauty of itself, inherent and self-sufficient

If you want to be happy, says Democritus, do little

Most of what we say and do is unnecessary

Life is short: make your gain from the present moment with right reason and justice. Keep sober and relaxed.

All is ephermeral

You are a soul carrying a corpse, as Epictetus used to say

Change: nothing inherently bad in the process, nothing inherently good in the result

The process of becoming exhibit a wonderfully inherent affinity

Always remember Heraclitus: ‘The death of earth is the birth of water; the death of water is the birth of air; the death of air is fire and back again.’

You should think there no great difference between life to the umpteenth year and life to tomorrow

You should always look on human life as short and cheap. Yesterday sperm: tomorrow a mummy or ashes

So one should pass through this tiny fragment of time in tune with nature, and leave it gladly, as an olive might fall when ripe, blessing the earth which bore it and grateful to the tree which gave it growth

It is my good luck that, although this has happened to me, I can bear it without pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearful of the future

Book V

Virtues which are wholly in your own power – integrity, dignity, hard work, self-denial, contentment, frugality, kindness, independence, simplicity, discretion, magnanimity

You ought to be one of those who, in a sense, are unconscious of the good they do

Prayer should be simple and open

In all this murk and dirt, in all this flux of being, time, movement, things moved, one should console oneself with the anticipation of natural release, not impatient of its delay, but taking comfort in two thoughts. One that nothing will happen to me which is not in accordance with the nature of the Whole: the other that it is in my control to do nothing contrary to the divinity within me – no one can force me to this offence.

Witty comment on wealth and the privileges of luxury and fame, ‘He is so rich, he has no room to shit.’

I am made up of the causal and the material.

Strange that ignorance and pretension should be stronger than wisdom

It is our duty to do good to men and tolerate them

Revere the ultimate power in the universe

Reflect on the speed with which all things are carried past and swept away. Reflect too on the yawning gulf of past and future time, in which all things vanish.

You are the tiniest part; you have been assigned a brief and fleeting moment

My wish is to follow the nature of a rational and social being

Good fortune consists in good inclinations of the soul, good impulses, good actions

Book VI

All that exists will soon change

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy

I do my own duty: the other things do not distract me. They are either inanimate or irrational, or have lost the road and are ignorant of the true way

Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, unpretentious, a friend of justice, god fearing, kind, full of affection, strong for your proper work.

Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.

Book VII

Do not be ashamed of help

Do not let the future trouble you

Everything material rapidly disappears in the universal substance

Soon you will have forgotten all things: soon all things will have forgotten you

Do not look around at the directing minds of other people, but keep looking straight ahead to where nature is leading you – both universal nature, in what happens to you, and your own nature, in what you must do yourself.

Imagine you are now dead, or had not lived before this moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus, and live it as nature directs.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing in that it stands ready for what comes and is not thrown by the unforeseen.

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

Book VIII

If you have a true perception of how things lie, abandon and concern for reputation, and be satisfied if you can just live the rest of your life, whatever remains, in the way your nature wishes.

Nothing is good for a human being which does not make him just, self-controlled, brave, and free.

Do not be upset; concentrate on the matter in hand; see it for what it is.

Kindness, integrity, sincerity.

All things are mutations, but there is equality in their distribution.

Man’s nature is part of a nature that is unimpeded, intelligent, and just. Each creature gets a fair and appropriate allocation of duration, substance, cause, activity and experience.

No wholly good person would regret missing a pleasure.

What dies does not pass out of the universe.

Nature’s aim for everything includes its cessation just as much as its beginning and its duration.

Just as you see your bath – all soap, sweat, grime, greasy water, the whole thing disgusting – so is every part of life and every object in it.

Do not let the panorama of your life depress you.

Nothing can happen to any human being that is outside the experience that is natural to humans.

If your distress has some external cause, it is not the thing itself that troubles you, but your own judgment of it – and you can erase this immediately.

Remember that your directing mind becomes invincible when it withdraws into its own self-sufficiency.

A mind free from passions is a fortress.

Do not elaborate to yourself beyond what your initial impressions report.

How then can you secure an everlasting spring? By keeping yourself at all times intent on freedom – and staying kind, simple and decent.

Men are born for the sake of each other. So either teach or tolerate.

Book IX

Injustice is sin.

Lying too is a sin.

Nature conceived certain principles of what was to be, and determined generative powers to create substances, transformations, and successive regeneration.

Do not despise death: welcome it, rather, as one further part of nature’s will.

Come quickly, death, or I too may forget myself.

Erase the print of imagination, stop impulse, quench desire: keep your directing mind its own master.

Reason too has its fruit, both universal and particular.

Good or ill for the rational socially being lies not in feeling but in action.

All things are in a process of change. You yourself are subject to constant alteration and gradual decay. So too is the whole universe.

There is nothing to fear in the termination, the pause and the change of your whole life.

The universal cause is a torrent, sweeping everything in its stream.

Don’t hope for Plato’s utopian republic, but be content with the slightest step forward.

Loss is nothing more than change.

Pray to the gods for something you can control, How can I stop desire? How can I stop wanting to be rid of someone or something? How can I learn not to fear loss? Give all your prayers this turn, and observe what happens.

The recognition that shameless people, rogues, traitors and every sort of offender must necessarily exist will immediately make you kinder to them as individuals.

It is only in your mind that damage or harm can be done to you.

Man was made to do good: and whenever he does something good or otherwise contributory to the common interest, he has done what he is designed for, and inherits his own.

Book X

Will you ever be complete and free of need?

The first premise must be that I am part of the Whole which is governed by nature: the second, that I have some close relationship with the other kindred parts.

Claim your entitlement to these epithets – good, decent, truthful; in mind clear, cooperative, and independent.

Adopt a systematic study of the way all things change into one another: pay constant attention to this aspect of nature and train yourself in it.

Do not even give a thought to what others will say or suppose about you, or do against you, but be content to meet these two conditions – your own integrity in each present action, and glad acceptance of your present lot. Abandon all other preoccupations and ambitions, and your only desire is to walk the straight path according to law and, in doing so, to follow in the path of god.

No more roundabout discussion of what makes a good man. Be one!

Consider any existing object and reflect that it is even now in the process of dissolution and change.

Always be clear in your head that ‘the grass is not greener’ elsewhere.

Constantly reflect that all things that happen now have happened before: reflect too that they will happen again in the future.

Let no one have a change to accuse you, with any truth, or not being sincere or a good man.

Mind and reason have the power to move through every obstacle.

All things are short lived – this is their common lot.

Your death should not be a wrench from life, but rather that easy slipping of the soul from that body’s carapace experienced by those dying at peace.

Get into the habit of asking yourself of any action taken by another: ‘What is his point of reference here?’ But begin with yourself: examine yourself first.

Book XI

Such is the sameness of things, a man with any understanding whatsoever has in a sense seen all the past and all the future.

Particular qualities of the rational soul are love of neighbor, truthfulness, integrity, no higher value than itself.

What a noble thing is the soul ready for its release from the body.

Mere things, brute facts, should not provoke your rage.

Ripe ears of corn are reaped and so are lives.

There was an education value in Old Comedy’s unbridled frankness

We can grow back again to our neighbor and resume our place in the complement of the whole

No nature is inferior to art

Someone despises me? That is his concern

Will he hate me? That is his concern

What harm can you suffer if you are acting in kind with your own nature and accepting what suits the present purpose of universal nature?

Live through life in the best way you can.

Anyone can be forgiven for seeking his own proper good

With each object of experience consider its origin, its constituents, what it is changing into, what it will be when changed – and that no harm will come to it.

Kindness is invincible.

There is nothing manly about being angry.

Any movement towards acts of injustice or self-indulgence, to anger, pain, or fear is nothing less than apostasy from nature

This is not a contest for a trivial prize: at issue is madness or sanity

BOOK XII

Direct the present solely to reverence and justice

Practice even what you have despaired of mastering

See things for what they are, analyzing into material, cause, and reference

How absurd – and a complete stranger in the world – is the man surprised at any aspect of his experience in life!

If it is not right, don’t do it; if it is not true, do not say it.

Realize at long last that you have within you something stronger and more numinous than those agents of emotion which make you a mere puppet on their strings.

That all is as thinking makes it so – and you control your thinking.

For each of us there is certainly no harm in the cessation of life, as there is no shame either

What a tiny part of the boundless abyss or time has been allotted to each of us – and this is soon vanished in eternity; how tiny part of the universal substance and the universal soul; how tiny in the whole earth the mere clod on which you creep