Meditations

by Marcus Aurelius

Not just because we move daily closer to death but also because our understanding—our grasp of the world—may be gone before we get there.

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.

l’impression de lire un self help book mais vu que c’est écrit par un empereur romain j’y crois

Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their minds.

Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?

Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What’s closer to nature’s heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? Can any vital process take place without something being changed? Can’t you see? It’s just the same with you—and just as vital to nature.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.

So when you call someone “untrustworthy” or “ungrateful,” turn the reproach on yourself. It was you who did wrong. By assuming that someone with those traits deserved your trust.

Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable … then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well.

The natural can never be inferior to the artificial; art imitates nature, not the reverse. In which case, that most highly developed and comprehensive nature—Nature itself—cannot fall short of artifice in its craftsmanship.