Saturday, April 30, 2011

Always run to the short way...

Always run to the short way; and the short way is the natural: accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason. For such a purpose frees a man from trouble, and warfare, and all artifice and ostentatious display.


Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 54.

Friday, April 29, 2011

It is a vulgar, but still a useful help ...

It is a vulgar, but still a useful help towards contempt of death, to pass in review those who have tenaciously stuck to life. What more then have they gained than those who have died early? Certainly they lie in their tombs somewhere at last, Cadicianus, Fabius, Julianus, Lepidus, or any one else like them, who have carried out many to be buried, and then were carried out themselves. Altogether the interval is small between birth and death; and consider with how much trouble, and in company with what sort of people and in what a feeble body this interval is laboriously passed. Do not then consider life a thing of any value. For look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is before thee, another boundless space. In this infinity then what is the difference between him who lives three days and him who lives three generations?

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 53.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Unhappy am I because this has happened to me...

Unhappy am I because this has happened to me.- Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a misfortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in all cases call that a man's misfortune, which is not a deviation from man's nature? And does a thing seem to thee to be a deviation from man's nature, when it is not contrary to the will of man's nature? Well, thou knowest the will of nature. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions and falsehood; will it prevent thee from having modesty, freedom, and everything else, by the presence of which man's nature obtains all that is its own? Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.


Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 52.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Be like the promontory against which the waves...

Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.



Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 51.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Think continually how many physicians...

Think continually how many physicians are dead after often contracting their eyebrows over the sick; and how many astrologers after predicting with great pretensions the deaths of others; and how many philosophers after endless discourses on death or immortality; how many heroes after killing thousands; and how many tyrants who have used their power over men's lives with terrible insolence as if they were immortal; and how many cities are entirely dead, so to speak, Helice and Pompeii and Herculaneum, and others innumerable. Add to the reckoning all whom thou hast known, one after another. One man after burying another has been laid out dead, and another buries him: and all this in a short time. To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a little mucus to-morrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.



Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 50.

Monday, April 25, 2011

If any god told thee that thou shalt die...

If any god told thee that thou shalt die to-morrow, or certainly on the day after to-morrow, thou wouldst not care much whether it was on the third day or on the morrow, unless thou wast in the highest degree mean-spirited- for how small is the difference?- So think it no great thing to die after as many years as thou canst name rather than tomorrow.



Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 49.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Always remember the saying...

Always remember the saying of Heraclitus, that the death of earth is to become water, and the death of water is to become air, and the death of air is to become fire, and reversely. And think too of him who forgets whither the way leads, and that men quarrel with that with which they are most constantly in communion, the reason which governs the universe; and the things which daily meet with seem to them strange: and consider that we ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep, for even in sleep we seem to act and speak; and that we ought not, like children who learn from their parents, simply to act and speak as we have been taught.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 48.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

In the series of things...

In the series of things those which follow are always aptly fitted to those which have gone before; for this series is not like a mere enumeration of disjointed things, which has only a necessary sequence, but it is a rational connection: and as all existing things are arranged together harmoniously, so the things which come into existence exhibit no mere succession, but a certain wonderful relationship.


Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 47.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Everything which happens is as familiar...

Everything which happens is as familiar and well known as the rose in spring and the fruit in summer; for such is disease, and death, and calumny, and treachery, and whatever else delights fools or vexes them.



Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 46.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Time is like a river made...

Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.


Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 45.

Monday, April 18, 2011

It is no evil for things to...

It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to subsist in consequence of change.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 44.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse...

Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.


Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 43.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Constantly regard the universe...

Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.



Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 42.

Friday, April 15, 2011

What is evil to thee does not ...

What is evil to thee does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of thy corporeal covering. Where is it then? It is in that part of thee in which subsists the power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form such opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it, the poor body, is burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet, that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.


Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 41.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Examine men's ruling principles, even those of the wise

Examine men's ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of things they avoid, and what kind they pursue.


Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 40.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Thou wilt soon die, and thou art ...

Thou wilt soon die, and thou art not yet simple, not free from perturbations, nor without suspicion of being hurt by external things, nor kindly disposed towards all; nor dost thou yet place wisdom only in acting justly.



Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 39.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Observe constantly that all things take place by change...

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a womb: but this is a very vulgar notion.




Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Meditations, Book IV - 38.