Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
translated by Martin Hammond
(Penguin Classics, 2006)
The personal and philosophical diary written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any thought or intention of publication.
Page vii.
To Himself is the better title given in the manuscript used for the first printed edition in 1559 (this manuscript is now lost: there is only one other complete manuscript).
Page vii.
He wrote in Greek because in the second century AD Greek was still the language of philosophy, read, written, and spoken with facility by most educated Romans.
Page vii.
The range, diversity, and honesty of Marcus’ reflections on human life and death in the perspective of eternity - doubt and despair, conviction and exaltation all equally intense - have enduring power to challenge, encourage, or console.
Page viii.
Truthfulness, realism, and honesty, as we will see, were the virtues Marcus admired most.
Page xiv.
There is another feature of Marcus’ reign forgotten by the historian of his life in the Historia Augusta (identified as ‘Julius Capitolinus’), who gives him the title Philosophus. This was the persecution of the Christians.
Page xvi.
But Marcus glances at the Christians in his Meditations only once (11.3), and his glance is one of scorn for their ‘theatrics’.
Page xvii.
The writings now knows as his Meditations are not so much silent dialogues with a divided self as admonitions and reflections the emperor addressed to himself and to which he seldom replies.
Page xvii.
The emperor never abandoned his Meditations, and the notebooks or scrolls out of which they developed somehow survived his death, unknown, it seems, even to his son and successors.
Page xviii.
The Meditations are unique in three senses of this much abused word. First and foremost is the fact that Marcus silently addresses himself. Second, the author of these meditations was the Roman emperor and the emperor wrote in Greek. Most Roman philosophers wrote in Latin. Third, Marcus never seems to have intended for publication the long series of meditations he entered into his journal.
Page xx.
One looks for parallels to the Meditations in Greek literature and fails to discover them.
Page xxi.
The reader will encounter a great deal of repetition in the Meditations. This might strike the reader as a stylistic flaw, but for a philosopher seeking to guide himself repetition is a philosophical virtue. Repetition is a form of spiritual exercise designed to reinforce the main principles of Marcus’ philosophy.
Page xxiii.
Greek was the language in which philosophy was taught and it was a language that Marcus preferred to Latin for the purpose of withdrawing inwards, meditating and clearing his mind.
Page xxvi.
Scattered through his Meditations we encounter reflections on his duty to serve, as ‘a male, mature in years, a statesman, a Roman, a ruler’ (3.5).
Pages xxix-xxx.
He never names any of the contemporaries who played important roles in his armies or administration.
Page xxx.
Only once does Marcus mention the city of Rome (6.44).
Page xxxii.
Marcus Aurelius was trained by Stoics in his early years. As a boy of twelve he adopted the ‘Greek way of life’ and wore a thick cloak and slept on the floor.
Pages xxxii-xxxiii.
Rationality is the connection between what is divine within the individual human being and the divine fire without, that transforms this unique world of ours into a unified Whole in which everything has its appropriate role and fulfils its duty, and nothing happens by accent or is wasted.
Page xxxv.
One of the most important injunctions for a Stoic was to ‘live in agreement with Nature.’ … by Nature the Stoics meant the highest form of human nature - Reason (Logos). By ‘agreement’ they meant a participation in and conformity with a higher principle of rationality.
Page xxxv.
It often seems that two of the Socratic ‘paradoxes’ are given new life by the Stoics. The first of these paradoxes is that virtue is knowledge; the second is the corollary: that no human being errs willingly, that is, knowingly. To know is to will. If the agent knows, there can be no weakness of will.
Page xxxvi.
Marcus was recognized as a philosopher by his contemporaries and later generations, but his Meditations do not read like a work of ‘philosophy’. In them he does not recognize the tripartite division of philosophical inquiry knot physics, logic, and ethics, and logic is almost entirely absent from the Meditations as a subject of reflection. Because he addresses himself, Marcus does not feel compelled to set out arguments to confute, convince, or convert others.
Page xxxviii.
Marcus is unmistakably a Stoic, yet he never proclaims his allegiance to Stoicism.
Page xxxviii.
Never does he appal to the authority of another philosopher to support his fundamental beliefs.
Page xxxix.
The emperor did not engage in corrosive polemic with rival philosophical views of the world.
Page xl.
… Marcus’ avowed tendency to assimilate and make a part of his character whatever fosters his rationality and self control …
Page xli.
The Stoics held a conviction that everything that happens in this universe with its single inhabited world is coherent, providential, and serves some purpose in Nature’s grand design.
Page xliii.
For Marcus philosophy was the therapy of the soul and he practises a variety of therapies on is soul. In this sense, his Meditations are his mediations.
Page xlv.
Marcus is convinced that one of the projects of philosophy is to analyse the world of men and matter into its parts; and then to reach a conception of the Whole of which they are parts - or members.
Page xlvi.
For Plato and the Greek philosophers who followed him there were four cardinal virtues. We have noticed them in passing. They are: prudent self-control (sophrosune), practical intelligence (phronesis), courage (andreia), and justice (dikaiosune). Marcus embraced and exhibited all of these, but only once does he list these four virtues as a tetrad.
Page xlviii.
It is reason that by its careful judgement creates an autonomy of the rational self.
Page l.
The Stoics held up a paradigm or ideal of the philosopher in complete, autonomous, and godlike control of himself. … This sage makes no appearance in the journals of Marcus Aurelius.
Page l.
Although Marcus’ subjects bestowed upon him the title ‘philosopher’, the emperor’s fame as a philosopher hung on the survival of a set of meditations of which none of his subjects could have been aware.
Page liii.
Providentially, a copy of the Meditations reached the west with the flood of learned refugees forced to leave Constantinople by the pressure of the Ottoman Turks. This manuscript seems to have been destroyed after it served as the basis for the first printed edition of the Meditations (Zurich, 1559).
Page liv.
Marcus Aurelius also exerted a powerful spell over two Christian intellectuals of the nineteenth century, Matthew Arnold and Ernest Renan.
Page lv.
♦
To love the camp-bed, the hide blanket, and all else involved in the Greek training.
Page 4.
Never to give the impression of anger or any other passion, but to combine complete freedom from passion with the greatest human affection; to praise without fanfare, and to wear great learning lightly.
Page 5.
Not to spurn a friend’s criticism, even if it may be an unreasonable complaint, but to try to restore his usual feelings.
Page 6.
A genuine love for children.
Page 6.
Love of family, love of truth, love of justice.
Page 6.
A monarchy which values above all the liberty of the subject.
Pages 6-7.
Self-mastery, immune to any passing whim; good cheer in all circumstances, including illness.
Page 7.
Gentleness, and an immovable adherence to decisions made after full consideration.
Page 7.
A sober steadfastness in all things, and nowhere any vulgar or newfangled taste.
Page 8.
Acting always in accordance with tradition, yet not making the preservation of tradition an overt aim.
Page 9.
Strength of character - and endurance or sobriety a the case may be - signifies the man of full and indomitable spirit.
Page 10.
The nature of good is what is right, and the nature of evil what is wrong.
Page 13.
We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work in opposition to one another is against nature: and anger or rejection is opposition.
Page 13.
And give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch, but in true grace and heartfelt gratitude to the gods.
Page 14.
Every hour of the day give vigorous attention, as a Roman and as a man, to the performance of the task in hand with precise analysis, with unaffected dignity, with human sympathy, with dispassionate justice - and to vacating your mind from all its other thought. And you will achieve this vacation if your perform each action as if it were the last of your life.
Page 15.
Those who fail to attend to the motions of their own soul are necessarily unhappy.
Page 16.
You may leave this life at any moment: have this possibility in your mind in all that you do or say or think. Now departure from the world of men is nothing to fear.
Page 17.
Death and life, fame and ignominy, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty - all these come to good and bad alike, but they are not in themselves either right or wrong: neither hen are they inherent good or evil.
Page 17.
What is death? Someone looking at death per se, and applying the analytical power of his mind to divest death of its associated images will conclude then that it is nothing more than a function of nature - and if anyone is frightened of a function of nature, he is a mere child. And death is not only a function of nature, but also to her benefit.
Page 18.
What comes from the gods demands reverence for their goodness. What comes from men is welcome for our kinship’s sake, but sometimes pitiable also, in a way, because of their ignorance of good and evil.
Pages 18-19.
No one loses any life other than the one he lives, or lives any life other than the one he loses. It follows that the longest and the shortest lives are brought to the same state. The present moment is equal for all. … No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?
Page 19.
First … all things have been of the same kind from everlasting, coming round and round again, and it makes no difference whether one will s the d same things for a hundred years, or two hundred year, or for an infinity of tine. Second … both the longest-lived and the earliest to die suffer the same loss. It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived and if indeed this is all he had, he cannot lose what he does not have.
Page 19.
To resent anything that happens is to separate oneself in revolt from Nature.
Page 20.
The end for rational creatures is to follow the reason and the rule of that most venerable archetype of a governing state - the Universe.
Page 20.
All things of the body stream away like a river, all tings of the mind are dreams and delusions; life is warfare, and a visit in a strange land: the only lasting fame is oblivion.
Pages 20-21.
At all times waiting death with the glad confidence that it is nothing more than the dissolution of the elements of which every living creature is composed. Now if there is fearful for the elements themselves sin their constant changing of each into another, why should one look anxiously in prospect at the change and dissolution of them all? This is in accordance with nature: and nothing harmful is in accordance with nature.
Page 21.
We must have a sense of urgency, not only for the ever closer approach of death, but also because our comprehension of the world and our ability to pay proper attention will fade before we do.
Page 22.
So any man with a feeling and deeper insight for the workings of the Whole will find some pleasure in almost every aspect of their disposition, including the incidental consequences.
Page 23.
Train yourself to think only those thoughts such that in answer to the sudden question ‘What is in your mind now?’ you could say with immediate frankness whatever it is, this or that: and so your answer can give direct evidence that all your thoughts are straightforward and kindly.
Pages 24-25.
He bears in mind too the kinship of all rational beings, and that caring for all men is in accordance with man’s nature: but that nevertheless he should not hold to the opinions of all, but only of those who live their lives in agreement with nature
Page 25.
You should take no action unwillingly, selfishly, uncritically, or with conflicting motives. Do not dress up your thoughts in smart finery: do not be a gabbler or a meddler.
Page 26.
Revere your power of judgement.
Page 28.
Nothing is so conducive to greatness of mind as the ability to subject each element of our experience in life to methodical and truthful examination, always at the same time using this scrutiny as a means to reflect on the nature of the universe, the contribution any given action or event makes to that nature, the value this has for the Whole, and the value it has for man,
Page 29.
No action in the human context will succeed without reference to the divine.
Page 30.
Body, soul, mind. To the body belong sense perceptions, to the soul impulses, to the mind judgements.
Page 31.
The defining characteristic of the good person is to love and embrace whatever happens to him along his thread of fate.
Page 31.
No action should be undertaken without aim, or other than in conformity with a principle affirming the art of life.
Page 33.
No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind.
Page 33.
Rational creatures are born for each other’s sake, that tolerance is a part of justice.
Page 34.
Things cannot touch the mind: they are external and inert; anxieties can only come from your internal judgement. … all these things you see will change almost as you look at them, and then will be no more.
Page 35.
The universe is change: life is judgement.
Page 35.
If mind is common to us all, then we have reason also in common - that which makes us rational beings.
Page 35.
Death, just like birth, is a mystery of nature: first a combination, then a dissolution, of the same elements. Certainly no cause for shame: because nothing out to the order for an intelligent being or contrary to the principle of his constitution.
Page 36.
What does not make a human being worse in himself cannot make his life worse either: it cannot harm him from outside or inside.
Page 36.
When someone does you wrong, do not judge things as he interprets them or would like you to interpret them just see then as they are, in plain truth.
Page 37.
No, you do not have thousands of years to live. Urgency is on you. While you live, while you can, become good.
Page 38.
Praise does not make anything better or worse.
Page 39.
In every impulse, give what is right: in every thought, stick to what is certain.
Page 40.
Most of what we say and do is unnecessary: remove the superfluity, and you will have more time and less bother. So in every case one should prompt oneself ‘Is this, or is it not, something necessary?’
Page 40.
Do not trouble yourself, keep yourself simple. Someone does wrong? He does wrong to himself. Has something happened to you? Fine. All that happens has been fated by the Whole from the beginning and spun for your own destiny.
Page 41.
Keep sober and relaxed.
Pages 41.
All things, distinct as they are, nevertheless permeate and respond to each other.
Page 41.
Constantly observe all that comes about through change, and habituate yourself to the thought that the nature of the Whole loves nothing so much as to change from one form of existence into another, similar but new.
Pages 43-44.
Assess nothing either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man or the good: because what can happen to a man irrespective of his life’s conformity to nature is not of itself either in accordance with nature or contrary to it.
Page 44.
Think always of the universe as one living ccreature, comprising one substance and one soul.
Page 44.
Change: nothing inherently bad in the process, nothing inherently good in the result.
Page 45.
You should always look on human life as short and cheap. Yesterday sperm: tomorrow a mummy or ashes.
Page 47.
Why see more misfortune in the event than good fortune in your ability to bear it?
Page 47.
Display those virtues which are wholly in your own power - integrity, dignity, hard work, self-denial, contentment, frugality kindness, independence, simplicity, discretion, magnanimity.
Page 51.
Prayer should be … simple and open, or not at all.
Page 52.
In the whole of things there is one harmony: and just as all material bodies combine to make the world one body, a harmonious whole, so all cause combine to make Destiny one harmonious cause.
Page 53.
Welcome all that happens to you, even if it seems rather cruel, because its purpose leads to the health of the universe and the prosperity and success of Zeus.
Page 53.
Obedience to reason is no great burden, but a source of relief.
Page 54.
One should console oneself with the anticipation of natural release.
Page 55.
To what use, then, am I now putting my soul? Ask yourself this question on every occasion.
Page 55.
Reason and the art of reasoning are faculties self-determined by their own nature and their own products.
Page 57.
Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.
Page 57.
Each creature is made in the interest of another; its course is directed to that for which it was made.
Page 58.
The good of a rational creature is community.
Page 58.
It is our duty to do good to men and tolerate them.
Page 59.
Existence is like a river in ceaseless flow, its actions a constant succession of change, its causes innumerable in their variety: scarcely anything stands still, even what is most immediate.
Pages 59-60.
I have now what universal nature wishes me to have now, and I do what my own nature wishes me to do now.
Page 60.
Luck is the good fortune you determine for yourself: and good fortune consists in good inclinations of the soul, good impulses, good actions
Page 64.
All that exists will soon change.
Page 65.
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
Page 66.
Sexual intercourse … is no more than the friction of a membrane and a spurt of mucus ejected.
Page 67.
Vanity is the greatest seducer of reason.
Page 67.
When you are most convinced that your work is important, that is when you are most under its spell.
Page 67.
Flows and changes are constantly renewing the world, just as the ceaseless passage of time makes eternity ever young.
Page 68.
What remains to be valued? To my mind, it is to act or refrain from action according to our own proper constitution, something to which sills and crafts show the way.
Page 69.
Reverence of your own mind and the value you give to it will make you acceptable to yourself, in harmony with your fellows, and consonant with the gods.
Page 70.
I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.
Page 71.
Death is relief from reaction to the senses, from the puppet-strings of impulse, from the analytical mind, and from service to the flesh.
Page 72.
Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, unpretentious, a friend of justice, god-fearing, kind, full of affection, strong for your proper work.
Page 73.
There is nothing contrary to nature in pain.
Page 74.
He who sees the present has seen all things, both all that has come to pass from everlasting and all that will be for eternity: all things are related and the same.
Page 75.
Fit yourself for the matters which have fallen to your lot, and love these people among whom destiny has cast you.
Page 76.
As Antoninus, my city and country is Rome: as a human being, it is the world. So what benefits these two cities is my only good.
Page 78.
What benefits one person benefits other people too.
Page 78.
In this world there is only one thing of value, to live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.
Page 79.
You should be content with your allocation of time.
Page 80.
Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.
Page 80.
Your principles are living things.
Page 82.
Bear in mind that a person’s worth is measured by the worth of what he values.
Page 83.
There is one universe out of all things, one god pervading all things, one substance, one law, one common reason in all intelligent beings, and one truth.
Page 84.
For a rational being, to act in accordance with nature is also to act in accordance with reason.
Page 84.
Whatever anyone does or says, I must be a good man.
Page 85.
Soon you will have forgotten all things: soon all things will have forgotten you.
Page 86.
It is human nature to love even those who trip and fall.
Page 87.
In the field or moral behaviour, if even the consciousness of doing wrong is lost, wheat reason is there left for living?
Page 87.
Do not dream of possession of what you do not have: rather reflect on the greatest blessings in what you do have, and on their account remind yourself how much they would have been missed if they were not there. But at the same time you must be careful not to let your pleasure in them habituate you to dependency, to avoid distress if they are sometimes absent.
Page 88.
Leave the wrong done by another where it started.
Page 88.
‘A king’s lot: to do good and be damned.’
Page 89.
Everywhere and all the time it is up to you to honour god in contentment with your present circumstance, to treat the men who are your present company with justice, and to lavish thought on every present impression in your mind, so that nothing slips in pasts your understanding.
Page 93.
Keep looking straight ahead to where nature is leading you.
Page 93.
Rational beings are here to serve each other. So the main principle in man’s constitution is the social.
Page 93.
In every contingency keep in your mind’s eye those who had the same experience before.
Page 94.
Whenever you suffer pain, have ready to hand the thought that pain is not a moral evil and does not harm your governing intelligence: pain can do no damage either to its rational or to its social nature.
Page 95.
Take care that you never treat the misanthropic as they treat mankind.
Page 96.
Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.
Page 97.
Nothing is good for a human being which does not make him just, self-controlled, brave, and free: and nothing evil which does not make him the opposite of these.
Page 99.
Remind yourself of your duty to be a god man and rehearse what man’s nature demands.
Page 100.
Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.
Page 101.
Regret is a censure of yourself for missing something beneficial.
Page 102.
Nothing should be done without purpose.
Page 103.
Everything has come into being for a purpose.
Page 103.
Nature’s aim for everything includes its cessation just a much as it beginning and its duration.
Page 104.
When you speak in the senate or to any individual, be straightforward, not pedantic. Use language which rings true.
Page 106.
Accept humbly: let go easily.
Page 107.
An obstacle to the mind is harmful to intelligent nature.
Page 109.
Nothing can happen to any human being outside the experience which is natural to humans.
Page 110.
If each thing experiences what is usual and natural for it, why should you complain? Universal nature has brought you nothing you can’t endure.
Page 111.
Do not be dilatory in action, muddled in communication, or vague in thought. Don’t let your mind settle into depression or elation. Allow some leisure in your life.
Page 113.
Someone who does not know that there is an ordered universe does not know where he is. Someone who does not know the natural purpose of the universe does not know who he is or what the universe is.
Page 113.
He who fears death fears either unconsciousness or another sort of consciousness.
Page 115.
Men are born for the sake of each other. So either teach or tolerate.
Page 115.
Injustice is sin.
Page 116.
The pursuit of pleasure as a good and the avoidance of pain as an evil constitutes sin.
Page 116.
Anyone who is not himself indifferent to pain and pleasure, death and life fame and obscurity - things which universal Nature treats indifferently - is clearly committing a sin.
Page 117.
The corruption of the mind is much more a plague than any such contaminating change in the surrounding air we breathe. The latter infects animate creatures in their animate nature: the former infects human beings in their humanity.
Page 118.
Do not despite death: welcome it, rather, as one further part of nature’s will.
Page 118.
The sinner sins against himself: the wrongdoer wrongs himself, by making himself morally bad.
Page 119.
All things are in a process of change. You yourself are subject to constant alteration and gradual decay. So too is the whole universe.
Page 122.
You should leave another’s wrong where it lies.
Page 122.
All that you see will soon perish; those who witness this perishing will soon perish themselves. Die in extreme old age or die before your tine - it will all be the same.
Page 126.
Loss is nothing more than change. Universal nature delights in change, and all that flows from nature happens for the good.
Page 126.
In general, you can always re-educate one who has lost his way: and anyone who does wrong has missed his proper aim and gone astray.
Page 129.
Man was made to do good: and whenever he does something good or otherwise contributory to the common interest he has done what he was designed for.
Page 130.
Whatever happens to you was being prepared for you from everlasting.
Page 132.
A man following reason in all things combines relaxation, with initiative, spark with composure.
Page 137.
What universal nature brings to each is brought to his benefit.
Page 139.
To feel fear … pain or anger is to be a fugitive.
Page 140.
Constantly reflect that all the things which happen now have happened before: reflect too that they will happen again in the future.
Page 140.
Whenever you take offence at the wrong done by another, move on at once to consider what similar wrong you are committing.
Page 141.
All things are short-lived - this is their common lot - but you pursue likes and dislikes as if all was fixed for eternity. In a little while you to will close your eyes, and soon there will be others mourning the man who buries you.
Page 144.
No one is so fortunate as not to have standing round his deathbed some people who welcome the fate coming on him.
Page 144.
Why should anyone cling to a longer stay here on earth?
Page 145.
Particular qualities too of the rational soul are love of neighbour, truthfulness, integrity, no higher value than itself.
Page 147.
There is … no difference between the true principle of philosophy and the principle of justice.
Page 147-148.
What a noble thing is the soul ready for its release from the body; if now must be the time, and prepared for whatever follows - extinction, dispersal, or survival! But this readiness must come form a specific decision: not in mere revolt, like the Christians, but thoughtful, dignified, and - if others are to believe it - undramatic.
Page 148.
A human being severed from must one other human has dropped from the whole community.
Page 150.
Make up your mind to dismiss your assessment of some supposed outrage, and your anger is gone. And how to remove them? By reflecting that no moral harm is caused you.
Page 155.
Kindness is invincible - if it is sincere, not fawning or pretense.
Page 155.
There is nothing manly in being angry, but a gentle calm is both more human and therefore more virile. It is the gentle who have strength, sinew, and courage - not the indignant and complaining. The closer to control of emotion, the closer to power. Anger is as much a sign of weakness as is pain.
Page 156.
The aim we should set ourselves is a social aim, the benefit of our fellow citizens.
Page 158.
In writing and reading you must learn before you can teach. Yet more so in life.
Page 159.
How one should be in both body and soul when overtaken by death; the shortness of life; the immensity of time future and past; the feebleness of all tings material.
Page 164.
If it is not right, don’t do it: if it is not true, don’t say it.
Page 166.
It is the nature of all things to change, to perish and be transformed, so that in succession different things can come to be.
Page 167.
Any one individual activity which comes to an end at the appropriate time suffer no harm from its cessation.
Page 167.
A human being has close kinship with the whole human race.
Page 169.
Each of us lives only the present moment, and the present moment is all we lose.
Page 169.
The salvation of life lies in seeing each object in its essence and its entirety, discerning both the material and the causal: in applying one’s whole soul to doing right and speaking the truth.
Page 170.
The mind has this unique property: it reaches out to others of its own kind and joins with them, so the feeling of fellowship is not broken.
Page 170.
♦
Many topics or themes recur several times throughout the Meditations, and the frequency of occurrence may well reflect the importance which Marcus attributed to them.
Page 173.