Meditations

by Marcus Aurelius

the most important is the unwavering conviction that the world is organized in a rational and coherent way. More specifically, it is controlled and directed by an all-pervading force that the Stoics designated by the term logos.

Logos operates both in individuals and in the universe as a whole. In individuals it is the faculty of reason. On a cosmic level it is the rational principle that governs the organization of the universe.

defining free will as a voluntary accommodation to what is in any case inevitable.

“just because you’ve abandoned your hopes of becoming a great thinker or scientist, don’t give up on attaining freedom, achieving humility, serving others

The discipline of perception requires that we maintain absolute objectivity of thought: that we see things dispassionately for what they are.

It is, in other words, not objects and events but the interpretations we place on them that are the problem. Our duty is therefore to exercise stringent control over the faculty of perception, with the aim of protecting our mind from error.

second discipline, that of action, relates to our relationship with other people. Human beings,

We were made, Marcus tells us over and over, not for ourselves but for others, and our nature is fundamentally unselfish. In our relationships with others we must work for their collective good, while treating them justly and fairly as individuals.

Our duty to act justly does not mean that we must treat others as our equals; it means that we must treat them as they deserve.

The third discipline, the discipline of will, is in a sense the counterpart to the second, the discipline of action. The latter governs our approach to the things in our control, those that we do; the discipline of will governs our attitude to things that are not within our control, those that we have done to us (by others or by nature).

things outside our control have no ability to harm us.

Acts of nature such as fire, illness, or death can harm us only if we choose to see them as harmful.

we must see things for what they are (here the discipline of perception is relevant) and accept them, by exercising the discipline of will,

Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option: to accept this event with humility [will]; to treat this person as he should be treated [action]; to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in [perception].

The best revenge is not to be like that.

avoid the public schools, to hire good private teachers, and to accept the resulting costs as money well-spent.

a man can show both strength and flexibility.

accept favors from friends without losing your self-respect or appearing ungrateful.

Doing your job without whining.

The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me.

Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.

Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life,

make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions.

You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.

The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.

Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people—unless it affects the common good.

to care for all human beings is part of being human.

Each of us lives only now, this brief instant.

Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul.

doing what’s right sometimes requires patience;

no one does the wrong thing deliberately;

Disturbance comes only from within—from our own perceptions.

“The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.”

Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.

Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you.

Not to be driven this way and that, but always to behave with justice and see things as they are.

You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.

Human lives are brief and trivial.

when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.

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

I need something to replace the post it note of this next to my desk.

It is crazy to want what is impossible.

Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.

When you think you’ve been injured, apply this rule: If the community isn’t injured by it, neither am I. And if it is, anger is not the answer. Show the offender where he went wrong.

treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.

Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.

Look inward. Don’t let the true nature or value of anything elude you.

The best revenge is not to be like that.

If anyone can refute me—show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective—I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.

Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.