Meditations, Marcus Aurelius [websites to read books for free TXT] 📗

compared with any other

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