THE MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS by Marcus Aurelius

• To read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book;
• 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.
• Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts.
• Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.
• For the present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived, if it is true that this is the only thing which he has, and that a man cannot lose a thing if he has it not.
• A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
• Let no act be done without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to the perfect principles of art.
• Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
• For the greatest part of what we say and do being unnecessary, if a man takes this away, he will have more leisure and less uneasiness. Accordingly on every occasion a man should ask 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.
• 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 time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.
• Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.
• To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the bad should not do something of this kind.
• Often think of the rapidity with which things pass by and disappear, both the things which are and the things which are produced.
• When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a manner, quickly return to thyself and do not continue out of tune longer than the compulsion lasts; for thou wilt have more mastery over the harmony by continually recurring to it.
• If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, do not think that it is impossible for man: but if anything is possible for man and conformable to his nature, think that this can be attained by thyself too.
• All things are little, changeable, perishable.
• He who loves fame considers another man’s activity to be his own good; and he who loves pleasure, his own sensations; but he who has understanding, considers his own acts to be his own good.
• every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.
• Be not ashamed to be helped; for it is thy business to do thy duty like a soldier in the assault on a town. How then, if being lame thou canst not mount up on the battlements alone, but with the help of another it is possible?
• Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole; and everything formal (causal) is very soon taken back into the universal reason; and the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
• Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty 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.
• Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about thee, and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing shall steal into them without being well examined.
• Only attend to thyself, and resolve to be a good man in every act which thou doest: and remember. . . Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
• It is very possible to be a divine man and to be recognised as such by no one. Always bear this in mind; and another thing too, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.
• The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.
• Attend to the matter which is before thee, whether it is an opinion or an act or a word.
• Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.
• Neither in thy actions be sluggish nor in thy conversation without method, nor wandering in thy thoughts, nor let there be in thy soul inward contention nor external effusion, nor in life be so busy as to have no leisure.
• Enter into every man’s ruling faculty; and also let every other man enter into thine.
• Wipe out imagination: check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power.
• Labour not as one who is wretched, nor yet as one who would be pitied or admired: but direct thy will to one thing only, to put thyself in motion and to check thyself, as the social reason requires.
• All things are the same, familiar in experience, and ephemeral in time, and worthless in the matter. Everything now is just as it was in the time of those whom we have buried.
• Loss is nothing else than change.
• He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.
• When thou art offended at any man’s fault, forthwith turn to thyself and reflect in what like manner thou dost err thyself;
• There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen.
• If all things are not mere atoms, it is nature which orders all things: if this is so, the inferior things exist for the sake of the superior, and these for the sake of one another.
• If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.
• First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a purpose. Second, make thy acts refer to nothing else than to a social end.