Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (e book free reading TXT) 📖
- Author: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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Himself, Is This One Of The Unnecessary Things? Now A Man Should Take
Away Not Only Unnecessary Acts, But Also Unnecessary Thoughts, For Thus
Superfluous Acts Will Not Follow After.
25. Try How The Life Of The Good Man Suits Thee, The Life Of Him Who Is
Satisfied With His Portion Out Of The Whole, And Satisfied With His Own
Just Acts And Benevolent Disposition.
26. Hast Thou Seen Those Things? Look Also At These. Do Not Disturb
Thyself. Make Thyself All Simplicity. Does Any One Do Wrong? It Is To
Himself That He Does The Wrong. Has Anything Happened To Thee? Well; Out
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 53Of The Universe From The Beginning Everything Which Happens Has Been
Apportioned And Spun Out To Thee. In A Word, Thy Life Is Short. Thou
Must Turn To Profit The Present By The Aid Of Reason And Justice. Be
Sober In Thy Relaxation.
27. Either It Is A Well-Arranged Universe[A] Or A Chaos Huddled
Together, But Still A Universe. But Can A Certain Order Subsist In Thee,
And Disorder In The All? And This Too When All Things Are So Separated
And Diffused And Sympathetic.
[A] Antoninus Here Uses The Word [Greek: Kosmos] Both In The
Sense Of The Universe And Of Order; And It Is Difficult To
Express His Meaning.
28. A Black Character, A Womanish Character, A Stubborn Character,
Bestial, Childish, Animal, Stupid, Counterfeit, Scurrilous, Fraudulent,
Tyrannical.
29. If He Is A Stranger To The Universe Who Does Not Know What Is In It,
No Less Is He A Stranger Who Does Not Know What Is Going On In It. He Is
A Runaway, Who Flies From Social Reason; He Is Blind, Who Shuts The Eyes
Of Understanding; He Is Poor, Who Has Need Of Another, And Has Not From
Himself All Things Which Are Useful For Life. He Is An Abscess On The
Universe Who Withdraws And Separates Himself From The Reason Of Our
Common Nature Through Being Displeased With The Things Which Happen, For
The Same Nature Produces This, And Has Produced Thee Too: He Is A Piece
Rent Asunder From The State, Who Tears, His Own Soul From That Of
Reasonable Animals, Which Is One.
30. The One Is A Philosopher Without A Tunic, And The Other Without A
Book: Here Is Another Half Naked: Bread I Have Not, He Says, And I Abide
By Reason--And I Do Not Get The Means Of Living Out Of My Learning, +
And I Abide [By My Reason].
31. Love The Art, Poor As It May Be, Which Thou Hast Learned, And Be
Content With It; And Pass Through The Rest Of Life Like One Who Has
Intrusted To The Gods With His Whole Soul All That He Has, Making
Thyself Neither The Tyrant Nor The Slave Of Any Man.
32. Consider, For Example, The Times Of Vespasian. Thou Wilt See All
These Things, People Marrying, Bringing Up Children, Sick, Dying,
Warring, Feasting, Trafficking, Cultivating The Ground, Flattering,
Obstinately 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
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 54Matters 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 Things 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.
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 55
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[A]
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
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