Meditations

the recognition that education is something on which one should spend freely.

endurance of hardship, reduction of one’s needs, working with one’s own hands; minding one’s own business and turning a deaf ear to malicious gossip.

refraining from criticism; not jumping down a person’s throat and lambasting him when he makes a mistake in his vocabulary, syntax, or pronunciation, but adeptly introducing the correct form, the one he should have used, when responding to or confirming what he said, or when discussing the matter further with him—the matter itself, not his expression—or by finding some other tactful way to remind him.

people one met early in life (the soul

None of them can harm me, anyway, because none of them can infect me with immorality,6 nor can I become angry with someone who’s related to me, or hate him, because we were born to work together, like feet or hands or eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth.

To work against each other is therefore unnatural—and anger and rejection count as “working against.”

Remember how long you’ve been putting this off and how often the gods have given you due dates of which you’ve not taken advantage. It’s high time now for you to recognize what kind of universe you’re a part of, and what kind of universal directing power you’re an emanation of, and that a limit has been set on your time, and if you don’t use it to dispel the mists it will pass, and you will pass, and the opportunity won’t come again.

Treat yourself with contempt, soul of mine—yes, contempt! The time has passed for you to respect yourself. For no one lives long, and this life of yours is all but spent while you dishonor yourself and make your happiness depend on the souls of others.

Free yourself from them, in favor of learning something new and worthwhile, and stop your purposeless wandering. But now there’s another kind of meandering that you need to guard against: people who’ve become world-weary, and lack a goal to which they can direct every impulse and, in general, every impression, act in ways that are as meaningless as their words.

the sins of desire were more serious than the sins of anger. He argued that an angry man abandons reason because he’s distressed, experiencing some internal psychic contraction,24 while a man whose wrongdoing is caused by desire is more self-indulgent, because he’s been defeated by pleasure,25 and is less manly in his wrongdoing.

It follows that the longest life and the shortest life come to the same thing.

no one can lose either the past or the future, because no one can lose what he doesn’t have.

To resent anything that happens is to set oneself apart from nature, of which the various individual natures of everything else are parts.

It’s in accord with nature, and nothing that’s in accord with nature is bad.

You must have a sense of urgency, then, not only because at each moment you’re drawing closer to death, but also because your understanding of the world around you and your ability to pay attention to it will come to an end before you do.

there’s almost nothing that a sensitive person, with a deep enough understanding of the workings of the universe, will fail to find pleasing in its manifestations, including these incidental concomitants.

You have to exclude everything purposeless and random from the sequence of your thoughts, but especially and above all anything prompted by idle curiosity or ill will.

Being stamped with impressions is an attribute also of cattle; being tugged here and there by impulses is an attribute also of wild beasts, queers, Phalaris, and Nero; having the mind as a guide to what appears to be appropriate action is an attribute also of atheists, traitors, and people who behave with depravity behind closed doors.

Never act without purpose; make sure that all your actions conform to the philosophical principles that constitute the art of living.

everything you see will shortly change and before long will cease to exist; and bear constantly in mind how many changes you personally have gone through in the past. “The universe is change, and life a supposition.”

“Whatever happens, it’s right that it should happen.” If you observe things carefully, you’ll find this to be the case. When I say that it’s right, I don’t mean merely that it plays its part in the universal sequence of cause and effect, but that it’s consistent with justice—as though there were someone rewarding things as they deserved. So carry on observing with the same care with which you started, and accompany every one of your actions with being a good man, following your specific understanding of what it is to be a good man.24 Hang on to this in everything you do.

It follows that you should prod yourself every time by asking: Is this really necessary? And it’s important to dispense with not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts as well, because that will ensure that no redundant actions follow either.

You’ve looked at things from that perspective, haven’t you? Now look at them from this. Don’t upset yourself; don’t complicate your life. Is someone treating you badly? He’s doing it to himself.44 Has something happened to you? Good: every one of your experiences has been ordained and fated for you from the beginning by the universe.

Stay sober in your hours of leisure.

So what should one take seriously? Only the following: a just mind, socially useful actions, speech that only ever tells the truth, and the ability to welcome everything that happens as necessary, as comprehensible by reason, and as flowing from an equally rational original source.

The point being that everything that exists is in a sense a seed for what takes its place, but to your way of thinking the only seeds are those that are sown in the ground or the womb, which is distinctly unphilosophical.

So spend this fleeting moment of time living in accord with nature, and take your leave with serenity, as a ripe olive might fall, blessing the earth that bore it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth.

“It’s my rotten luck that this has happened to me.” On the contrary: “It’s my good luck that, although this has happened to me, I still feel no distress, since I’m unbruised by the present and unconcerned about the future.”

What happened could have happened to anyone, but not everyone could have carried on without letting it distress him. So why regard the incident as a piece of bad luck rather than seeing your avoidance of distress as a piece of good luck?

Can what happened to you stop you from being fair, high-minded, moderate, conscientious, unhasty, honest, moral, self-reliant, and so on—from possessing all the qualities that, when present, enable a man’s nature to be fulfilled? So then, whenever something happens that might cause you distress, remember to rely on this principle: this is not bad luck, but bearing it valiantly is good luck.

It’s only when it comes to action that you haven’t yet reached the limits of your abilities. And the reason is that you don’t love yourself. If you did, you’d love your nature and its purpose. Other people who are devoted to their areas of expertise wear themselves out over them, forgetting to wash or eat. Do you value your own nature less than an artisan does his metalwork, a dancer his dancing, a miser his money, a celebrity his moment of fame? In their obsession, they’re willing to give up food and sleep in favor of spending more time over the objects of their passion.

There are two reasons, then, why you should gladly accept whatever happens to you. First, because the experience happened to you, was prescribed for you, and was the product of a web somehow woven just for you way back in time, out of the most ancient causes.

nothing will happen to me that isn’t in accord with universal nature; second, that it’s impossible for me to do anything that goes against my inner god, my guardian spirit, because no one can compel me to contravene its will.

Nothing happens to anyone that he’s not equipped by nature to bear.

In themselves, the things of the world have no effect on the mind; they can’t get through to it, they can’t sway it, and they can’t stir it. The only thing that changes and stirs the mind is the mind, and when external objects are presented to it, it has them conform to the judgments that it deems itself justified in making about them.

Is someone treating me badly? That’s his concern. He’s his own man and his actions are his own. I currently have what universal nature wants me to have, and I’m acting as my nature currently wants me to act.

Why do uninformed and ignorant minds confound an informed and knowledgeable man? Well, what is an informed and knowledgeable mind? It’s one that knows the beginning and the end, and knows the reason that permeates all existence and administers the universe in regular cycles throughout all eternity.

“Once I was a lucky man, wherever I was to be found.” But a lucky man is one who makes his own good fortune,65 and good fortune consists in good uses of the mind, good impulses, and good deeds.

The best form of defense is not to become like one’s enemy.

This should be a lifelong exercise:13 whenever things particularly seem to deserve your acceptance, strip them bare so that you can see how worthless they are and dispense with the descriptions that make them seem more significant than they are. Vanity is terrifyingly good at derailing rational thought, and it’s when you think you’re engaged on important matters that you’re most under its spell.

It’s horrible that in this life, while your body keeps going, your mind gives up first.

Get into the habit of listening attentively to anything that anyone says, and enter, as much as you can, into the mind of the speaker.

Apply your intelligence to what’s being said. Get your mind to delve under the surface of what’s happening and see what’s making it happen.

Perhaps the mark of a real man is that he isn’t worried about how long he lives, and isn’t attached to life. What a real man should do is leave these matters in God’s hands, believe his womenfolk when they tell him that no one can escape his fated end, and then consider best how to live however many years he still has to live.

Wherever you find yourself, it’s within your power, at every moment, to be reverently content with your present circumstances

All you have to do is embrace your experiences, or in other words the destiny that’s been woven for you. After all, what could be more perfectly suited to you?

And bear in mind the following two points: that your actions are important, and that the context of those actions is a matter of indifference.

When you’ve done a good deed, and someone else has benefited, why do you still look for a third gain over and above these two? It’s sheer foolishness to desire recognition for having done good or to want something back in return.

Change is ubiquitous, but this needn’t make you worry that something unusual will occur: everything is familiar—but also the destinies allotted to things are equal.

pleasure is neither favorable nor good.

Never stop erasing impressions by saying to yourself, “At this moment it’s up to me whether or not this soul of mine is harmed or in need, or in fact is disturbed in any way. By seeing all things as they truly are, I deal with each of them on its merits.” Remember that you have this possibility, granted to you by your nature.

Accept graciously, let go easily.

Just as universal nature turns every hindrance and impediment to its own purposes, assigns it to its destined place, and makes it a part of itself, so it’s possible for a rational creature to make every obstacle material for itself and use it for the end it set out to attain.

Universal nature wasn’t bringing you anything you couldn’t endure.

When doing something, don’t be sluggish; when talking to people, don’t be muddled; when thinking, don’t be vague.

Wrongdoing is the outcome not just of action but often of inaction as well.

One man’s prayer is “Help me to bed that woman,” while yours is “Help me not to desire to bed that woman.” Another’s is “Help me get rid of that man,” while yours is “Help me not to want to get rid of that man.” Another’s is “Help me not to lose my child,” while yours is “Help me not to be afraid of losing my child.”50 In short, turn your prayers around like that and see what happens.

“During my illness, I didn’t make my physical suffering a topic of conversation or talk about anything like that to visitors. Instead, I continued to talk as a natural scientist, expounding my principal doctrines, and focusing especially on this very point, how the mind, despite the fact that it shares in such physical disturbances, remains unperturbed and preserves its specific good. Nor,”

Moreover, what is unusual or surprising about an uneducated man doing uneducated things? It’s worth considering whether you ought rather to blame yourself for failing to foresee that he would transgress in this way. After all, you even had the resources, in the form of your ability to think rationally, to appreciate that he was likely to commit that fault, yet you forgot it and are now surprised that he did exactly that.

Every event that takes place either can or can’t be endured by you, given your nature.5 If an event that takes place is within the natural limits of your endurance, don’t complain, but put up with it, since you can, given your nature. If it goes beyond those limits, don’t complain, because it will simply finish you off. But remember that nature has made you capable of enduring anything, as long as it is up to your judgment to render it endurable and tolerable by representing to yourself the doing of it as either advantageous or your duty.

Whatever happens to you was being created for you from eternity, and from eternity the web of causation was weaving for you not just your existence but this particular event as well.

To nature, which gives all things and takes them back, an educated, modest man says: “Give what you want; take back what you want”—not in an impudent manner, but only as nature’s loyal subject.

No more abstract discussions about what a good man is like: just be one!

And so a healthy mind must be ready for everything that happens, but a mind that says, “I hope my children are safe,” or, “I’d like to be praised by everyone for everything I do,” is like an eye that wants only pale colors or teeth that want only soft foods.

It’s true that I’m being separated from people who are, in a sense, my relatives, but I leave without resisting and without needing to be forced, because death too is one of the things that is in accord with nature.

Do your best to acquire the habit of asking yourself, every time anyone acts: “What’s his intention in doing this?” But start with yourself and examine yourself first.

contemplates the fact that those who come after us will see nothing new and those who went before us saw nothing that wasn’t already familiar; in fact, in a sense a man of forty, if he has even a modicum of awareness, has seen everything that has happened and will happen, because it’s all the same in kind.

Is someone going to despise me? That’s his concern. Mine is to see that I don’t do or say anything that deserves to be despised. Is someone going to hate me? That’s his concern. I’ll remain kind and benevolent to everyone.

when you’re too angry or impatient, remember that human life is fleeting and before long all of us will have been laid to rest.

Eighth, remember that we suffer more from getting angry and upset about such things than we do from the things themselves that are making us angry and upset.

Every time you lose your temper, make sure you have readily available the thought that anger is not a manly quality

Fortitude, strength, and courage are attributes of a calm and gentle man, not one who’s irascible and easily offended, because the closer a man is to being impassive, the closer he is also to being a man of power.

it’s insane to expect bad men not to do wrong, because that would be a case of desiring the impossible. But to concede that they wrong others, while expecting them not to wrong you, would be unfeeling and tyrannical.

“Unless a man has one and the same aim throughout his life, he cannot be one and the same person throughout his life.”

Where literacy is concerned, you can’t be a leader until you’ve been a follower. The principle is even more relevant to life.

All those things that you pray to get in the due course of time—you can have them now if you don’t deny yourself them. What you have to do is leave the past behind, entrust the future to providence, and, focusing on the present alone, direct it toward piety and justice: piety, so that you embrace your lot,1 seeing that it was nature that brought you to it and it to you; and justice, so that you speak the truth without restriction or equivocation, and act in conformity with law and equity.

I’ve often found it astonishing how everyone loves himself more than anyone else, and yet attaches less importance to his own opinion of himself than he does to what others think of him. At any rate, if a god or a wise mentor came and told him not to entertain any ideas or thoughts without simultaneously also voicing them for others to hear, he wouldn’t be able to stand it for even one day. This proves that we place more weight on our neighbors’ opinions of us than we do on our own.

Keep practicing even when there seems no hope of success. The left hand is useless for most things because of lack of practice, but it grips a horse’s reins more firmly than the right hand because it’s had plenty of practice.

How ridiculous—and how profoundly a stranger to the world—is someone who’s surprised by anything that happens to him in the course of his life!

First, never act without plan and purpose. Second, set your sights on no other goal but the common good.

everything that happens has always happened and will always happen, and is happening right now all over the world.

Seventh, that “Everything is as you take it to be.”32 Eighth, that the present moment is all the life that anyone has, and all the life that he loses.

What a tiny fraction of the infinite gulf of time has been allotted to each of us! It’s very quickly swallowed up by eternity. What a tiny fraction of the entirety of substance! What a tiny fraction of the entirety of soul! What a tiny clod of earth you crawl on, compared to the earth as a whole! Bear all this in mind and think nothing important except acting in compliance with your nature and being acted upon by whatever universal nature brings your way.