Meditations

by Marcus Aurelius

Marcus gratefully declares how of his grandfather he had learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion.

He was taught to dress plainly and to live simply, to avoid all softness and luxury.

But they died one by one, and when Marcus came to his own end only one of his sons still lived—the weak and worthless Commodus.

YIKES??

As a soldier we have seen that Marcus was both capable and successful; as an administrator he was prudent and conscientious. Although steeped in the teachings of philosophy, he did not attempt to remodel the world on any preconceived plan. He trod the path beaten by his predecessors, seeking only to do his duty as well as he could, and to keep out corruption.

Marcus sought by-laws to protect the weak, to make the lot of the slaves less hard, to stand in place of father to the fatherless. Charitable foundations were endowed for rearing and educating poor children.

maybe i’m just a cynic, but i am genuinely so skeptical that this man was the saint that he is being portrayed as here

The highest good was the virtuous life. Virtue alone is happiness, and vice is unhappiness. Carrying this theory to its extreme, the Stoic said that there could be no gradations between virtue and vice, though of course each has its special manifestations.

maybe i am just entirely too cynical and skeptical, but considering !! that this man was a roman emperor, i find it so hard to believe that he is the absolute saint that this intro just portrayed him as. i hate a lack of nuance.

Moreover, nothing is good but virtue, and nothing but vice is bad. Those outside things which are commonly called good or bad, such as health and sickness, wealth and poverty, pleasure and pain, are to him indifferent (adiofora).

no Stoic claimed for himself that he was this Wise Man, but that each strove after it as an ideal much as the Christian strives after a likeness to Christ.

while the Roman’s temper is a modest self-reliance, the Christian aims at a more passive mood, humbleness and meekness, and reliance on the presence and personal friendship of God.

“Why doth a little thing said or done against thee make thee sorry? It is no new thing; it is not the first, nor shall it be the last, if thou live long. At best suffer patiently, if thou canst not suffer joyously.”

“Study to be patient in suffering and bearing other men’s defaults and all manner infirmities,” says the Christian;

These notes are not sermons; they are not even confessions. There is always an air of self-consciousness in confessions; in such revelations there is always a danger of unctuousness or of vulgarity for the best of men.

He never poses before an audience; he may not be profound, he is always sincere. And it is a lofty and serene soul which is here disclosed before us. Vulgar vices seem to have no temptation for him; this is not one tied and bound with chains which he strives to break. The faults he detects in himself are often such as most men would have no eyes to see.

i believe that the actual writing of marcus aurelius will be far less anger-inducing than this introduction.

those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better.

His mood is one of strenuous weariness; he does his duty as a good soldier, waiting for the sound of the trumpet which shall sound the retreat;

He drills his soul, as it were, in right principles, that when the time comes, it may be guided by them.

always, whether in the sharpest pains, or after the loss of a child, or in long diseases, to be still the same man;

Every man’s happiness depends from himself, but behold thy life is almost at an end, whiles affording thyself no respect, thou dost make thy happiness to consist in the souls, and conceits of other men.

“who cares what other people think, focus on yourself.”

Thou must also take heed of another kind of wandering, for they are idle in their actions, who toil and labour in this life, and have no certain scope to which to direct all their motions, and desires.

working hard without a goal or plan is still unproductive.

For not observing the state of another man’s soul, scarce was ever any man known to be unhappy. Tell whosoever they be that intend not, and guide not by reason and discretion the motions of their own souls, they must of necessity be unhappy.

translation: manage your own mind to avoid misery, instead of worrying about the inner lives of others.

those sins are greater which are committed through lust, than those which are committed through anger. For he that is angry seems with a kind of grief and close contraction of himself, to turn away from reason;

he of the two is the more to be condemned, that sins with pleasure, than he that sins with grief.

As for life therefore, and death, honour and dishonour, labour and pleasure, riches and poverty, all these things happen unto men indeed, both good and bad, equally; but as things which of themselves are neither good nor bad; because of themselves, neither shameful nor praiseworthy.

translation: life’s external conditions, such as wealth, health, and status, are not inherently good or bad— consider them with indifference, as they don’t reflect moral worth.

as also what it is to die, and how if a man shall consider this by itself alone, to die, and separate from it in his mind all those things which with it usually represent themselves unto us, he can conceive of it no otherwise, than as of a work of nature, and he that fears any work of nature, is a very child. Now death, it is not only a work of nature, but also conducing to nature.

translation: fearing death is childish; not only is it a part of nature, but it is conducive to nature.

For as for that which is either past or to come, a man cannot be said properly to part with it. For how should a man part with that which he hath not?

translation: in death, you’re only parting with the present, not the past or future, because you don’t possess either.

A man’s soul doth wrong and disrespect itself first and especially, when as much as in itself lies it becomes an aposteme, and as it were an excrescency of the world, for to be grieved and displeased with anything that happens in the world, is direct apostacy from the nature of the universe; part of which, all particular natures of the world, are. Secondly, when she either is averse from any man, or led by contrary desires or affections, tending to his hurt and prejudice; such as are the souls of them that are angry. Thirdly, when she is overcome by any pleasure or pain.

translation: according to stoicism the soul harms itself by 1) resisting the natural order of the universe. 2) harboring negative emotions— ex: anger, hatred, fear, envy. 3) being controlled by pleasure or pain. 4) dishonesty. 5) acting without purpose— so align your soul with reason, truth, and the natural order

for all such things, wherein the best strength and vigour of the mind is most requisite; his power and ability will be past and gone. Thou must hasten therefore; not only because thou art every day nearer unto death than other, but also because that intellective faculty in thee, whereby thou art enabled to know the true nature of things, and to order all thy actions by that knowledge, doth daily waste and decay: or, may fail thee before thou die.

translation: when you age, your mental capacity may diminish or decline, so keep your mind sharp, educate yourself, and use your discernment for right and wrong.

The hanging down of grapes—the brow of a lion, the froth of a foaming wild boar, and many other like things, though by themselves considered, they are far from any beauty, yet because they happen naturally, they both are comely, and delightful;

Lice killed Democritus; and Socrates, another sort of vermin, wicked ungodly men. How then stands the case? Thou hast taken ship, thou hast sailed, thou art come to land, go out, if to another life, there also shalt thou find gods, who are everywhere. If all life and sense shall cease, then shalt thou cease also to be subject to either pains or pleasures; and to serve and tend this vile cottage; so much the viler, by how much that which ministers unto it doth excel; the one being a rational substance, and a spirit, the other nothing but earth and blood.

translation: regardless of achievement, death is inevitable. the body is only a vile cottage, inferior to the soul.