Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (top romance novels .txt) đź“–
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and the same all through his life. But what I have said is not enough,
unless this also is added, what this object ought to be. For as there is
not the same opinion about all the things which in some way or other are
considered by the majority to be good, but only about some certain
things, that is, things which concern the common interest, so also ought
we to propose to ourselves an object which shall be of a common kind
[social] and political. For he who directs all his own efforts to this
object, will make all his acts alike, and thus will always be the same.
22. Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm
and trepidation of the town mouse. [Footnote: 7]
23. Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of
Lamiae,—bugbears to frighten children.
24. The Lacedaemonians at their public spectacles used to set seats in
the shade for strangers, but themselves sat down anywhere.
25. Socrates excused himself to Perdiccas for not going to him, saying,
It is because I would not perish by the worst of all ends; that is, I
would not receive a favor and then be unable to return it.
26. In the writings of the [Ephesians] there was this precept, constantly
to think of some one of the men of former times who practised virtue.
27. The Pythagoreans bid us in the morning look to the heavens that we
may be reminded of those bodies which continually do the same things and
in the same manner perform their work, and also be reminded of their
purity and nudity. For there is no veil over a star.
28. Consider what a man Socrates was when he dressed himself in a skin,
after Xanthippe had taken his cloak and gone out, and what Socrates said
to his friends who were ashamed of him and drew back from him when they
saw him dressed thus.
29. Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules
for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself.
Much more is this so in life.
30. A slave thou art: free speech is not for thee.
31. And my heart laughed within.
Odyssey, IX. 413.
32. And virtue they will curse, speaking harsh words.
HESIOD, Works and Days, 184.
33. To look for the fig in winter is a madman’s act: such is he who looks
for his child when it is no longer allowed (Epictetus, III. 24, 87).
34. When a man kisses his child, said Epictetus, he should whisper to
himself, “To-morrow perchance thou wilt die.”—But those are words of bad
omen.—“No word is a word of bad omen,” said Epictetus, “which expresses
any work of nature; or if it is so, it is also a word of bad omen to
speak of the ears of corn being reaped” (Epictetus, III. 24, 88).
35. The unripe grape, the ripe bunch, the dried grape all are changes,
not into nothing, but into something which exists not yet (Epictetus,
III. 24).
36. No man can rob us of our free will (Epictetus III. 22, 105).
37. Epictetus also said, a man must discover an art [or rules] with
respect to giving his assent; and in respect to his movements he must be
careful that they be made with regard to circumstances, that they be
consistent with social interests, that they have regard to the value of
the object; and as to sensual desire, he should altogether keep away from
it; and as to avoidance [aversion], he should not show it with respect to
any of the things which are not in our power.
38. The dispute then, he said, is not about any common matter, but about
being mad or not.
39. Socrates used to say, What do you want, souls of rational men or
irrational?—souls of rational men.—Of what rational men, sound or
unsound?—Sound.—Why then do you not seek for them?—Because we have
them.—Why then do you fight and quarrel?
BOOK XII.
1. All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road
thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself. And this
means, if thou wilt take no notice of all the past, and trust the future
to providence, and direct the present only conformably to piety and
justice. Conformably to piety, that thou mayest be content with the lot
which is assigned to thee, for nature designed it for thee and thee for
it. Conformably to justice, that thou mayest always speak the truth
freely and without disguise, and do the things which are agreeable to law
and according to the worth of each. And let neither another man’s
wickedness hinder thee, nor opinion nor voice, nor yet the sensations of
the poor flesh which has grown about thee; for the passive part will look
to this. If, then, whatever the time may be when thou shalt be near to
thy departure, neglecting everything else thou shalt respect only thy
ruling faculty and the divinity within thee, and if thou shalt be afraid
not because thou must some time cease to live, but if thou shalt fear
never to have begun to live according to nature,—then thou wilt be a man
worthy of the universe which hast produced thee, and thou wilt cease to
be a stranger in thy native land, and to wonder at things which happen
daily as if they were something unexpected, and not to be dependent on
this or that.
2. God sees the minds [ruling principles] of all men bared of the
material vesture and rind and impurities. For with his intellectual part
alone he touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived
from himself into these bodies. And if thou also usest thyself to do
this, thou wilt rid thyself of thy much trouble. For he who regards not
the poor flesh which envelops him, surely will not trouble himself by
looking after raiment and dwelling and fame and such like externals and
show.
3. The things are three of which thou art composed: a little body, a
little breath [life], intelligence. Of these the first two are thine, so
far as it is thy duty to take care of them; but the third alone is
properly thine. Therefore if thou shalt separate from thyself, that is,
from thy understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever thou hast
done or said thyself, and whatever future things trouble thee because
they may happen, and whatever in the body which envelops thee or in the
breath [life], which is by nature associated with the body, is attached
to thee independent of thy will, and whatever the external circumfluent
vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power exempt from the
things of fate can live pure and free by itself, doing what is just and
accepting what happens and saying the truth: if thou wilt separate, I
say, from this ruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the
impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is
past, and wilt make thyself like Empedocles’ sphere,
“All round and in its joyous rest reposing”;
and if thou shalt strive to live only what is really thy life, that is,
the present,—then thou wilt be able to pass that portion of life which
remains for thee up to the time of thy death free from perturbations,
nobly, and obedient to thy own daemon [to the god that is within thee]
(II. 13, 17; III. 5, 6; XI. 12).
4. I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than
all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of
himself than on the opinion of others. If then a god or a wise teacher
should present himself to a man and bid him to think of nothing and to
design nothing which he would not express as soon as he conceived it, he
could not endure it even for a single day. So much more respect have we
to what our neighbors shall think of us than to what we shall think of
ourselves.
5. How can it be that the gods, after having arranged all things well and
benevolently for mankind, have overlooked this alone, that some men, and
very good men, and men who, as we may say, have had most communion with
the divinity, and through pious acts and religious observances have been
most intimate with the divinity, when they have once died should never
exist again, but should be completely extinguished?
But if this is so, be assured that if it ought to have been otherwise,
the gods would have done it. For if it were just, it would also be
possible; and if it were according to nature, nature would have had it
so. But because it is not so, if in fact it is not so, be thou convinced
that it ought not to have been so: for thou seest even of thyself that in
this inquiry thou art disputing with the Deity; and we should not thus
dispute with the gods, unless they were most excellent and most just; but
if this is so, they would not have allowed anything in the ordering of
the universe to be neglected unjustly and irrationally.
6. Practise thyself even in the things which thou despairest of
accomplishing. For even the left hand, which is ineffectual for all other
things for want of practice, holds the bridle more vigorously than the
right hand; for it has been practised in this.
7. Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when
he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the
boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.
8. Contemplate the formative principles [forms] of things bare of their
coverings; the purposes of actions; consider what pain is, what pleasure
is, and death, and fame; who is to himself the cause of his uneasiness;
how no man is hindered by another; that everything is opinion.
9. In the application of thy principles thou must be like the
pancratiast, not like the gladiator; for the gladiator lets fall the
sword which he uses and is killed; but the other always has his hand, and
needs to do nothing else than use it.
10. See what things are in themselves, dividing them into matter, form,
and purpose.
11. What a power man has to do nothing except what God will approve, and
to accept all that God may give him.
12. With respect to that which happens conformably to nature, we ought to
blame neither gods, for they do nothing wrong either voluntarily or
involuntarily, nor men, for they do nothing wrong except involuntarily.
Consequently we should blame nobody (II. 11, 12, 13; VII. 62; VIII. 17,
18).
13. How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything
which happens in life.
14. Either there is a fatal necessity and invincible order, or a kind
providence, or a confusion without a purpose and without a director (IV.
27). If then there is an invincible necessity, why dost thou resist? But
if there is a providence which allows itself to be propitiated, make
thyself worthy of the help of the divinity. But if there is a confusion
without a governor, be content that in such a tempest thou hast in
thyself a certain ruling intelligence.
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