The Inner Citadel Quotes

“It is not things that trouble us,” as Epictetus said, “but our judgment about things,”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“For us, nature’s final accomplishment is contemplation, becoming aware, and a way of living in harmony with nature.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“In the first place, sensation (aisthesis) is a corporeal process which we have in common with animals, and in which the impression of an exterior object is transmitted to the soul. By means of this process, an image (phantasia) of the object is produced in the soul, or more precisely in the guiding part (hegemonikon) of the soul”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“...the only thing each of us lives and loses is the present.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“Do what you must, let happen what may”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“...breathe the intellect which embraces all things as if it were the surrounding air....”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“Leave your books alone. Don’t let yourself be distracted any longer; you can’t allow yourself that any more (II, 2, 2). Throw away your thirst for reading, so that when you die, you will not be grumbling, but will be in true serenity, thanking the gods from the bottom of your heart (II, 3, 3). Marcus is no longer to disperse himself by gathering extracts from authors in the course of his readings, for he no longer has time to read. He is no longer, out of intellectual curiosity or speculative interest, to write great quantities of “note-cards,” as we would call them nowadays: rather, he is to write only in order to influence himself, and concentrate on the essential principles (II, 3, 3): Let these thoughts be enough, if they are life-principles (dogmata) for you. Marcus, then, is to keep on writing. From now on, however, he will write only efficacious thoughts: that is, those which totally transform his way of living. As he wrote these texts, which were to become our Meditations, Marcus no doubt used these “note-cards” which he was afraid he would no longer have the time to reread; just as he no doubt had recourse to his collections of extracts in order to take from them the quotations from authors which he reproduced in several books of the Meditations. Formally, then, Marcus’ literary activity did not change. He continued to write down for himself all kinds of notes and reflections (hypomnēmata); but the finality of these intellectual exercises had become completely modified. From the point of view of the imminence of death, one thing counts, and one alone: to strive always to have the essential rules of life present in one’s mind, and to keep placing oneself in the fundamental disposition of the philosopher, which consists essentially in controlling one’s inner discourse, in doing only that which is of benefit to the human community, and in accepting the events brought to us by the course of the Nature of the All. Thus, the Meditations belong to that type of writing called hypomnēmata in antiquity, which we could define as “personal notes taken on a day-to-day basis.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“From the point of view of the imminence of death, one thing counts, and one alone: to strive always to have the essential rules of life present in one’s mind, and to keep placing oneself in the fundamental disposition of the philosopher, which consists essentially in controlling one’s inner discourse, in doing only that which is of benefit to the human community, and in accepting the events brought to us by the course of the Nature of the All.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“It is probable that many educated people—and especially philosophers—were in the habit of making such collections of all kinds of notes for their personal use: both in order to inform themselves, and also in order to form themselves; that is, to ensure their spiritual progress. It was no doubt with this goal in mind that Plutarch had put together his collection on the tranquillity of the soul.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“All things Near and far Are linked to each other In a hidden way By an immortal power So that you cannot pick a flower Without disturbing a star.19”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“Podríamos decir, además, que hay en la humanidad un estoicismo universal, quiero decir con ello que la actitud que llamamos «estoica» es una de las posibilidades permanentes y fundamentales del ser humano, cuando busca la sabiduría.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“Todos los estoicos pues, y no solamente Marco Aurelio, se habrían podido suscribir a las dos formulaciones kantianas del imperativo categórico: «Actúa únicamente según la máxima que hace que puedas querer, al mismo tiempo, que se convierta en ley universal.» «Actúa como si la máxima de tu acción tuviese que erigirse, por medio de tu voluntad, en ley universal de la Naturaleza,»6 No hay que decir: Marco Aurelio escribe corno si hubiera leído la Crítica de la razón practica sino más bien: Kant emplea estas fórmulas porque, entre otros, ha leído a los estoicos.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“el libro de las Meditaciones no envejecerá jamás; pues no afirma ningún dogma. El Evangelio ha envejecido en algunas partes; la ciencia ya no permite admitir la ingenua concepción de lo sobrenatural que está en su base. Lo sobrenatural no es en las Meditaciones más que una pequeña mancha insignificante que no alcanza la maravillosa belleza del fondo. Aunque la ciencia pudiese destruir a Dios y al alma^ el libro de las Meditaciones seguiría permaneciendo joven en su vida y en su verdad. La religión de Marco Aurelio, como lo fuera en algunos momentos la de Jesús, es la religión absoluta, la que resulta del simple hecho de una elevada conciencia moral situada frente al universo. No es ni de una raza ni de un país* ninguna revolución, ningún
progreso, ningún descubrimiento podrá cambiarla”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“Entre el estoicismo y Nietzsche se abre un abismo. Mientras que el «sí» estoico es consentimiento a la racionalidad del mundo, la afirmación dionisíaca de la existencia de la que habla Nietzsche es un «sí» dado a la irracionalidad, a la crueldad ciega de la vida, a la voluntad de poder más allá del bien y del mal”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“Se habla a sí mismo, pero tenemos la impresión de que se dirige a cada uno de entre nosotros.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“...politics cannot be separated from the great human and cosmic perspectives That are opened up for us by our recognition of a transcendent universality - Reason or Nature - which, by means of its harmony with itself, founds both people’s love for one another and their love for that Whole of which they are the part.”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius