Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (top 10 inspirational books .TXT) 📗
- Author: Marcus Aurelius
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that a man cannot lose a thing if he has it not.
15. Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the Cynic Monimus
is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what was said, if a man
receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.
16. The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it
becomes an abscess, and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as
it can. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of
ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other
things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to itself
when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with the
intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. In
the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered
by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says
anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows any act of its
own and any movement to be without an aim, and does anything
thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being right that
even the smallest things be done with reference to an end; and the end of
rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most ancient
city and polity.
17. Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux,
and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to
putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame
a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which
belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream
and vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after—fame
is oblivion. What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing,
and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon within
a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures,
doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not
feeling the need of another man’s doing or not doing anything; and
besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming
from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally,
waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a
dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded.
But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually
changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the
change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to
nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.
This in Carnuntum.
BOOK III.
1. We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and
a smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into
the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain
whether the understanding will still continue sufficient for the
comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which
strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he
shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and
imagination and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will
not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the
measure of our duty, and clearly separating all appearances, and
considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else
of the kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason,—all this is
already extinguished. We must make haste, then, not only because we are
daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the
understanding of them cease first.
2. We ought to observe also that even the things which follow after the
things which are produced according to nature contain something pleasing
and attractive. For instance, when bread is baked some parts are split at
the surface, and these parts which thus open, and have a certain fashion
contrary to the purpose of the baker’s art, are beautiful in a manner,
and in a peculiar way excite a desire for eating. And again, figs, when
they are quite ripe, gape open; and in the ripe olives the very
circumstance of their being near to rottenness adds a peculiar beauty to
the fruit. And the ears of corn bending down, and the lion’s eyebrows,
and the foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars, and many other
things,—though they are far from being beautiful if a man should examine
them severally,—still, because they are consequent upon the things which
are formed by nature, help to adorn them, and they please the mind; so
that if a man should have a feeling and deeper insight with respect to
the things which are produced in the universe, there is hardly one of
those which follow by way of consequence which will not seem to him to be
in a manner disposed so as to give pleasure. And so he will see even the
real gaping jaws of wild beasts with no less pleasure than those which
painters and sculptors show by imitation; and in an old woman and an old
man he will be able to see a certain maturity and comeliness; and the
attractive loveliness of young persons he will be able to look on with
chaste eyes; and many such things will present themselves, not pleasing
to every man, but to him only who has become truly familiar with Nature
and her works.
3. Hippocrates, after curing many diseases, himself fell sick and died.
The Chaldaei foretold the deaths of many, and then fate caught them too.
Alexander and Pompeius and Caius Caesar, after so often completely
destroying whole cities, and in battle cutting to pieces many ten
thousands of cavalry and infantry, themselves too at last departed from
life. Heraclitus, after so many speculations on the conflagration of the
universe, was filled with water internally and died smeared all over with
mud. And lice destroyed Democritus; and other lice killed Socrates. What
means all this? Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, thou art
come to shore; get out. If indeed to another life, there is no want of
gods, not even there; but if to a state without sensation, thou wilt
cease to be held by pains and pleasures, and to be a slave to the vessel,
which is as much inferior as that which serves it is superior: for the
one is intelligence and deity; the other is earth and corruption.
4. Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when
thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility. For
thou losest the opportunity of doing something else when thou hast such
thoughts as these,—What is such a person doing, and why, and what is he
saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and
whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of
our own ruling power. We ought then to check in the series of our
thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of
all the over-curious feeling and the malignant; and a man should use
himself to think of those things only about which if one should suddenly
ask, What hast thou now in thy thoughts? with perfect openness thou
mightest immediately answer, This or That; so that from thy words it
should be plain that everything in thee is simple and benevolent, and
such as befits a social animal, and one that cares not for thoughts about
pleasure or sensual enjoyments at all, nor has any rivalry or envy and
suspicion, or anything else for which thou wouldst blush if thou shouldst
say that thou hadst it in thy mind. For the man who is such, and no
longer delays being among the number of the best, is like a priest and
minister of the gods, using too the [deity] which is planted within him,
which makes the man uncontaminated by pleasure, unharmed by any pain,
untouched by any insult, feeling no wrong, a fighter in the noblest
fight, one who cannot be overpowered by any passion, dyed deep with
justice, accepting with all his soul everything which happens and is
assigned to him as his portion; and not often, nor yet without great
necessity and for the general interest, imagining what another says, or
does, or thinks. For it is only what belongs to himself that he makes the
matter for his activity; and he constantly thinks of that which is
allotted to himself out of the sum total of things, and he makes his own
acts fair, and he is persuaded that his own portion is good. For the lot
which is assigned to each man is carried along with him and carries him
along with it. And he remembers also that every rational animal is his
kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to man’s nature; and a
man should hold on to the opinion not of all, but of those only who
confessedly live according to nature. But as to those who live not so, he
always bears in mind what kind of men they are both at home and from
home, both by night and by day, and what they are, and with what men they
live an impure life. Accordingly, he does not value at all the praise
which comes from such men, since they are not even satisfied with
themselves.
5. Labor not unwillingly, nor without regard to the common interest, nor
without due consideration, nor with distraction; nor let studied ornament
set off thy thoughts, and be not either a man of many words, or busy
about too many things. And further, let the deity which is in thee be the
guardian of a living being, manly and of ripe age, and engaged in matter
political, and a Roman, and a ruler, who has taken his post like a man
waiting for the signal which summons him from life, and ready to go,
having need neither of oath nor of any man’s testimony. Be cheerful also,
and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give. A man
then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
6. If thou findest in human life anything better than justice, truth,
temperance, fortitude, and, in a word, anything better than thy own
mind’s self-satisfaction in the things which it enables thee to do
according to right reason, and in the condition that is assigned to thee
without thy own choice; if, I say, thou seest anything better than is,
turn to it with all thy soul, and enjoy that which thou hast found to be
the best. But if nothing appears to be better than the Deity which is
planted in thee, which has subjected to itself all thy appetites, and
carefully examines all the impressions, and, as Socrates said, has
detached itself from the persuasions of sense, and has submitted itself
to the gods, and cares for mankind; if thou findest everything else
smaller and of less value than this, give place to nothing else, for if
thou dost once diverge and incline to it, thou wilt no longer without
distraction be able to give the preference to that good thing which is
thy proper possession and thy own; for it is not right that anything of
any other kind, such as praise from the many,
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