Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (top romance novels .txt) 📖
- Author: Marcus Aurelius
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single thing is equal in all respects, but by taking all the parts
together of one thing and comparing them with all the parts together of
another.
8. Thou hast not leisure [or ability] to read. But thou hast leisure [or
ability] to check arrogance: thou hast leisure to be superior to pleasure
and pain: thou hast leisure to be superior to love of fame, and not to be
vexed at stupid and ungrateful people, nay even to care for them.
9. Let no man any longer hear thee finding fault with the court life or
with thy own (V. 16).
10. Repentance is a kind of self-reproof for having neglected something
useful; but that which is good must be something useful, and the perfect
good man should look after it. But no such man would ever repent of
having refused any sensual pleasure. Pleasure then is neither good nor
useful.
11. This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution! What is
its substance and material? And what its causal nature [or form]? And
what is it doing in the world? And how long does it subsist?
12. When thou risest from sleep with reluctance, remember that it is
according to thy constitution and according to human nature to perform
social acts, but sleeping is common also to irrational animals. But that
which is according to each individual’s nature is also more peculiarly
its own, and more suitable to its nature, and indeed also more agreeable
(V. 1).
13. Constantly and, if it be possible, on the occasion of every
impression on the soul, apply to it the principles of Physic, of Ethic,
and of Dialectic.
14. Whatever man thou meetest with, immediately say to thyself: What
opinions has this man about good and bad? For if with respect to pleasure
and pain and the causes of each, and with respect to fame and ignominy,
death and life, he has such and such opinions, it will seem nothing
wonderful or strange to me if he does such and such things; and I shall
bear in mind that he is compelled to do so.
15. Remember that as it is a shame to be surprised if the fig-tree
produces figs, so it is to be surprised if the world produces such and
such things of which it is productive; and for the physician and the
helmsman it is a shame to be surprised if a man has a fever, or if the
wind is unfavorable.
16. Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects
thy error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error.
For it is thy own, the activity which is exerted according to thy own
movement and judgment, and indeed according to thy own understanding too.
17. If a thing is in thy own power, why dost thou do it? but if it is in
the power of another, whom dost thou blame,—the atoms [chance] or the
gods? Both are foolish. Thou must blame nobody. For if thou canst,
correct [that which is the cause]; but if thou canst not do this, correct
at least the thing itself; but if thou canst not do even this, of what
use is it to thee to find fault? for nothing should be done without a
purpose.
18. That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here,
it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are
elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they
murmur not.
19. Everything exists for some end,—a horse, a vine. Why dost thou
wonder? Even the sun will say, I am for some purpose, and the rest of the
gods will say the same. For what purpose then art thou,—to enjoy
pleasure? See if common sense allows this.
20. Nature has had regard in everything no less to the end than to the
beginning and the continuance, just like the man who throws up a ball.
What good is it then for the ball to be thrown up, or harm for it to come
down, or even to have fallen? and what good is it to the bubble while it
holds together, or what harm when it is burst? The same may be said of a
light also.
21. Turn it [the body] inside out, and see what kind of thing it is; and
when it has grown old, what kind of thing it becomes, and when it is
diseased.
Short lived are both the praiser and the praised, and the rememberer and
the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not
even here do all agree, no, not any one with himself: and the whole earth
too is a point.
22. Attend to the matter which is before thee, whether it is an opinion
or an act or a word. Thou sufferest this justly: for thou choosest rather
to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day.
23. Am I doing anything? I do it with reference to the good of mankind.
Does anything happen to me? I receive it and refer it to the gods, and
the source of all things, from which all that happens is derived.
24. Such as bathing appears to thee,—oil, sweat, dirt, filthy water, all
things disgusting,—so is every part of life and everything.
25. Lucilla saw Verus die, and then Lucilla died. Secunda saw Maximus
die, and then Secunda died. Epitynchanus saw Diotimus die, and then
Epitynchanus died. Antoninus saw Faustina die, and then Antoninus died.
Such is everything. Celer saw Hadrianus die, and then Celer died. And
those sharp-witted men, either seers or men inflated with pride, where
are they,—for instance the sharp-witted men, Charax and Demetrius the
Platonist and Eudaemon, and any one else like them? All ephemeral, dead
long ago. Some indeed have not been remembered even for a short time, and
others have become the heroes of fables, and again others have
disappeared even from fables. Remember this then, that this little
compound, thyself, must either be dissolved, or thy poor breath must be
extinguished, or be removed and placed elsewhere.
26. It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man. Now it
is a proper work of a man to be benevolent to his own kind, to despise
the movements of the senses, to form a just judgment of plausible
appearances, and to take a survey of the nature of the universe and of
the things which happen in it.
27. There are three relations [between thee and other things]: the one to
the body which surrounds thee; the second to the divine cause from which
all things come to all; and the third to those who live with thee.
28. Pain is either an evil to the body—then let the body say what it
thinks of it—or to the soul; but it is in the power of the soul to
maintain its own serenity and tranquillity, and not to think that pain is
an evil. For every judgment and movement and desire and aversion is
within, and no evil ascends so high.
29. Wipe out thy imaginations by often saying to thyself: Now it is in my
power to let no badness be in this soul, nor desire, nor any perturbation
at all; but looking at all things I see what is their nature, and I use
each according to its value.—Remember this power which thou hast from
nature.
30. Speak both in the senate and to every man, whoever he may be,
appropriately, not with any affectation: use plain discourse.
31. Augustus’ court, wife, daughter, descendants, ancestors, sister,
Agrippa, kinsmen, intimates, friends, Areius, Maecenas, physicians, and
sacrificing priests,—the whole court is dead. Then turn to the rest, not
considering the death of a single man [but of a whole race], as of the
Pompeii; and that which is inscribed on the tombs,—The last of his race.
Then consider what trouble those before them have had that they might
leave a successor; and then, that of necessity some one must be the last.
Again, here consider the death of a whole race.
32. It is thy duty to order thy life well in every single act; and if
every act does its duty as far as is possible, be content; and no one is
able to hinder thee so that each act shall not do its duty.—But
something external will stand in the way.—Nothing will stand in the way
of thy acting justly and soberly and considerately.—But perhaps some
other active power will be hindered.—Well, but by acquiescing in the
hindrance and by being content to transfer thy efforts to that which is
allowed, another opportunity of action is immediately put before thee in
place of that which was hindered, and one which will adapt itself to this
ordering of which we are speaking.
33. Receive [wealth or prosperity] without arrogance; and be ready to let
it go.
34. If thou didst ever see a hand cut off, or a foot, or a head, lying
anywhere apart from the rest of the body, such does a man make himself,
as far as he can, who is not content with what happens, and separates
himself from others, or does anything unsocial. Suppose that thou hast
detached thyself from the natural unity,—for thou wast made by nature a
part, but now thou hast cut thyself off,—yet here there is this
beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God
has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut
asunder, to come together again. But consider the kindness by which he
has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be separated
at all from the universal; and when he has been separated, he has allowed
him to return and to be united and to resume his place as a part.
35. As the nature of the universal has given to every rational being all
the other powers that it has, so we have received from it this power
also. For as the universal nature converts and fixes in its predestined
place everything which stands in the way and opposes it, and makes such
things a part of itself, so also the rational animal is able to make
every hindrance its own material, and to use it for such purposes as it
may have designed.
36. Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not
thy thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which thou mayest
expect to befall thee: but on every occasion ask thyself, What is there
in this which is intolerable and past bearing? for thou wilt be ashamed
to confess. In the next place remember that neither the future nor the
past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very
little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind if it is
unable to hold out against even this.
37. Does Panthea or Pergamus now sit by the tomb of Verus? Does Chaurias
or Diotimus sit by the tomb of Hadrianus? That would be ridiculous. Well,
suppose they did sit there, would the dead be conscious of it? and if the
dead were conscious would they be pleased? and if they were pleased,
would that make them immortal? Was it not in the order of destiny that
these persons too should first become old women and old men and then die?
What then would those do after these were dead? All this is foul smell
and blood in a bag.
38. If
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