Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: the New Translation

by Marcus Aurelius

Are you afraid of change? But why? What can take place without change? What else is more pleasing and suitable to Nature? Can you have a wood-fired bath without the wood changing form? Can you be nourished without the food you eat breaking down? Can anything useful be done without change? Can’t you see your own change is just the same, and equally necessary for the expression of Nature?

Don’t focus on what you don’t have; be grateful for what you do.

Confine yourself to the present. Strive to truly understand yourself and others.

Think of your final hour. Let wrongdoings lay with the wrongdoers, not with you.

Observe the course of stars, as if you were among them, and remember how elements transform into one another, for such thoughts help purge the bullshit of earthly life.

The art of life is that of a wrestler’s more than a dancer’s: poised firmly in place, ready to greet the sudden and unexpected.

Take comfort in knowing there is no dishonor in pain. Nor does it diminish your ability to act rationally or generously.

Very little is actually necessary for a happy life.

It’s ridiculous to leave your own faults unexamined, which is absolutely possible to fix, while hoping to dodge the faults of another, which is impossible to do.

Turn the body inside out, and see what kind of thing it is. Watch it age, see what it becomes when diseased. Short-lived are the praiser and the praised, the remembered and the remembering. All done in some nook of the world, not even in agreement, not with anyone or even themselves. The whole earth a dot in space.

To living things, any blocking of senses is harmful, as is any hindrance of intentions. Same goes for plants. Whatever hinders the natural intelligence of a thing is harmful.

How can one become the spring, perpetually flowing, and not the stagnant well? By daily marrying your freedom to contentment, simplicity, and modesty.

Humans exist for the sake of one another. Teach them or tolerate them.

Share your wisdom with others, and take others’ wisdom into you.

Encompassing all matter, and being the prime cause of everything, Nature is Truth.

The cycles of the universe never change—up and down, age to age.

And to reflect on life this way, wave after rapid wave of transformation following each other inexhaustibly, one can finally let go of the mortal world.

The business of philosophy is meek and mild; miss me with that insolence and pride.

Ponder the lives of your ancestors, and successors, and the lives of those in foreign lands, who’ve never heard of you.

Never abandon philosophy, despite the state of things. Refuse trifling chatter with ignoramuses or anti-science types, such as real philosophy requires.

If someone is wrong, kindly show them their error.

And remember, ‘rationality’ means bringing a discriminating mindfulness to every single act, to remain free of negligence.

Stop talking about what a good person looks like and be one.

Contemplate eternity. Contemplate the breadth of matter and space.

The universe loves to create whatever is about to be. I say then to the universe: I love how you love.

You either remain alive because you’ve grown accustomed to it, die by your own hand, or die of old age, being discharged of your duty. There are no other options. Be of good cheer, then.

Contemplate the power encompassed by the same forces which carry things down and up. Not just what is seen, but what isn’t, and yet experienced no less plainly.

Constantly remind yourself that all that happens now has happened before, and will happen again. Bring before your eyes the dramas and stages, the same narratives and plots of history, or from your own experiences, perhaps.

Humans are smoke, nothing. And once changed, will never exist again in the infinite duration of time. And what of you, in this brief space of time are you alive? Why aren’t you content to enjoy your short stay in an orderly way? Ask yourself what meaning or opportunities are you avoiding. When carefully examined, what are life options but exercises in reason? Persevere in making your life your own, and like a strong stomach, digest everything you can, or like how the blazing, bright fire digests whatever is thrown into it.

Let no man find cause to say you are not humble, truthful, or good. Let whomever believes it be mistaken; and this is within your power, as nobody can stop you from being humble, truthful, and good. Live only to be such a person, or stop living, for reason can’t allow the opposite.

Always preserve your own character by being friendly, generous, and even-keeled.

It was Nature who bound and knotted you with your kinsmen, and Nature who separates you. “I part from them, without resistance, peacefully, according to the natural way.”

Other properties of the rational soul: love for one’s neighbor, a love for truth and modesty, and self-respect above all, which is a property of Law, as there is no difference between the rational and the just.

A soul in readiness: prepared to be separated from the body, at any moment. Ready to be extinguished or dispersed...or continue to exist. But this prepared stance arrives from one’s own judgment, not in some obstinate way, like with the Christians. It is measured, considerate, done with dignity, in a way that persuades others, without the melodrama.

It’s vain to get angry at things; things do not care. Life must be reaped like wheat. One man is born; another dies.

Nature is never inferior to art, as art imitates nature.

Suppose someone despises me. That’s their problem.

A person’s character is in the eyes. Lovers know this, reading what they see in a beloved.

And no one is more disgraceful than a false friend. Avoid the wolves.

Consider how often you are wrong yourself. You are human, just like them. Even if you abstain from certain vices or have learned to curb your faults, the potential to do wrong still exists in you.

When frustrated or upset, remember that life is short and then you die.

And when angry, remember that a crazy temper is not manly, not like reservedness and gentleness, themselves much more naturally agreeable and becoming. These qualities show you to possess strength, nerve, courage—and not some whiny, raging hothead.

You can’t teach others by laying down rules, in writing or speaking, that you haven’t learned to obey yourself.

And when your end nears, having respected your mind and inner divinity, and feared not death but a failing to live according to nature, then you will have been a person worthy of the universe that produced you. Ceasing to be a stranger in your homeland. Ceasing to react to everyday things as if they were unexpected. Ceasing external validation.

I’m always amazed at how people clearly love themselves much more than they love others, and yet value others’ opinions more than their own.

Be like the mixed martial arts fighter, not like the gladiator. The gladiator can drop his sword and be killed by it, but the other has his body as a weapon, and needs only to use it.

See things as they are, in themselves.

A lamp’s light will shine and maintain its splendor until extinguished. Will what shines in you—justice and temperance—continue all the way to the end?

Consider a person in their entirety—from early childhood to their time of soul-building to their relinquishing of body. Accept how they are constructed, and how they will be razed.

Everything is perception.