CONTEXT:
Marcus AureliusBorn: April 26, 121 AD, Rome, Italy
Died: March 17, 180 AD, Austria
A series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Aurelius called them “Writings To Myself.” They were written in Greek, although his native tongue was Latin. Large portions of the work were written at Sirmium, where he spent much time planning military campaigns from 170 to 180. Some of it was written while he was positioned at Aquincum on campaign in Pannonia, because internal notes tell us that the first book was written when he was campaigning against the Quadi on the river Granova (modern-day Hron) and the second book was written at Carnuntum. He died, most likely from the plague or cancer, on a military campaign in present day Austria.
Revered as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity, a state of psychological stability and composure, in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration. His death in 180 is widely cited as the end of the Pax Romana and the increasing instability in the west that followed has traditionally been seen as the beginning of the eventual Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
CONTENTS
These writings take the form of quotations varying in length from one sentence to long paragraphs. The work contains writings he kept in a journal intended to help him reflect on ideas to help him become a better person; the first real self help book. It is unlikely that Marcus Aurelius ever intended the writings to be published and the work has no official title, so "Meditations" is one of several titles commonly assigned to the collection. It is divided into 12 short books.
QUOTES
Book I
- Observe what envy, and duplicity, and hypocrisy are in a tyrant
- From Diognetus, [I learned] not to busy myself about trifling things, and not to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers about incantations and the driving away of daemons and such things.
- [thank the gods] when I had an inclination to philosophy, I did not fall into the hands of any sophist, and that I did not waste my time on writers of histories, or in the resolution of syllogisms, or occupy myself about the investigation of appearances in the heavens
- Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him.
- There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return.
- You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.
- Yet living and dying, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, and so forth are equally the lot of good men and bad. Things like these neither elevate nor degrade; and therefore they are no more good than they are evil.
- The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
- Never regard something as doing you good if it makes you betray a trust, or lose your sense of shame, or makes you show hatred, suspicion, ill will, or hypocrisy, or a desire for things best done behind closed doors.
- Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
- Constantly regard the universe as one living being, with 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 cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.
- Think on this doctrine,—that reasoning beings were created for one another's sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it.
- don't feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human--however imperfectly--and fully embrace the pursuit that you've embarked on.
- Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
- If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed.
- Adapt yourself to the environment in which your lot has been cast, and show true love to the fellow-mortals with whom destiny has surrounded you.
- Focus on what is said when you speak and on what results from each action. Know what the one aims at, and what the other means.
- Do not worry about the future. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
- Adorn thyself with simplicity and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God. The poet says that Law rules all. And it is enough to remember that law rules all.
- Take care not to feel towards the inhuman, as they feel towards men.
- Look within. Within is the fountain of the good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
- If...it be a thing external that causes thy grief, know, that it is not that properly that doth cause it, but thine own conceit and opinion concerning the thing: which thou mayest rid thyself of, when thou wilt.
- Today I escaped from worries, or rather I have cast them out; for they were not outside, but within and in my thoughts.
- Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from eternity have been done in like form, and will be such to time without end.
- Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
- If any man despises me, it is his problem. My only concern is not doing anything deserving of contempt.
- You can have all the things which await you on the long road, if you only choose to take them now.
- Always reflect on these three principles:
- In all that you do, be considerate and just; in all that happens to you, blame no one, because it comes to you by chance or providence.
- Look at all beings in their entirety, from cradle to the grave; from receiving and giving up it's soul; from evocation to dissolution.
- Consider things as you would look down on them from above: The vastness of the Earth, the diversity of mankind, the complexity of nature and its interrelatedness. Consider the great number of creatures and things, how we are all the same, and how brief is our stay. Then ask if these things are to be proud of?
- Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in your power. You can take it away when you choose. And like a sailor, who rounds the cape, you will find a calm, stable and waveless refuge.
Misattributed to Marcus Aurelius
- " If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
No printed sources exist for this prior to 2009, and this seems to have been an attribution which arose on the internet, as indicated by web searches and rationales provided at "Marcus Aurelius and source checking" at Three Shouts on a Hilltop (14 June 2011)
This quote may be a paraphrase of Meditations 2:11
"Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence? But Gods there are, undoubtedly, and they regard human affairs; and have put it wholly in our power, that we should not fall into what is truly evil. "
- "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
ALSO:
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
Mistranslated from Meditations 12:22 which reads:
"Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in your power. You can take it away when you choose. And like a sailor, who rounds the cape, you will find a calm, stable and waveless refuge."
There are also several passages in Mediations which quote the cynic Monimus "All is Impression (opinion)." - "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."Cited as being from The Meditations. This quote does not exist.
- "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard accordingly; and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue, and reasonable nature."
Book III chapter IX, Jeremy Collier's 1701 translation,
This translation bears little if any relation to the Greek original, where the very word for happiness seems to be missing. In my view quoting a long obsolete and extremely liberal translation equals misquotation:
Τὴν ὑποληπτικὴν δύναμιν σέβε. ἐν ταύτῃ τὸ πᾶν, ἵνα ὑπόληψις τῷ ἡγεμονικῷ σου μηκέτι ἐγγένηται ἀνακόλουθος τῇ φύσει καὶ τῇ τοῦ λογικοῦ ζῴου κατασκευῇ, αὕτη δὲ ἐπαγγέλλεται ἀπροπτωσίαν καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἀνθρώπους οἰκείωσιν καὶ τὴν τοῖς θεοῖς ἀκολουθίαν.
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