Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1. The substance of the whole is compliant and workable, and the reason governing it has within itself no cause to do evil; for it holds no vice, does nothing evilly, and nothing is harmed by it. All things come to be and are brought to completion according to it.
2. Do not concern yourself with whether you are doing what is fitting while shivering or while warm, whether drowsy or fully rested with sleep, whether spoken of badly or well, whether dying or doing something else instead; for even the act of dying belongs among the things a living body does, and here too it suffices to put the present moment to good use.
3. Look within. Do not let any thing's own quality, or its worth, slip past you unnoticed.
4. All underlying things will very soon change, and will either be turned to vapor, if indeed substance is one, or be scattered abroad.
5. The governing reason knows in what state it is disposed, and what it is doing, and on what matter it is working.
6. The best way of defending yourself is not to become like them.
7. Take delight in one thing and rest in it: moving from one act of service to the community to another act of service to the community, with the god in mind.
8. The ruling faculty is what rouses itself, turns itself, and makes itself into whatever it wants to be, and makes everything that happens to it appear to itself as it wants it to appear.
9. Each and every thing is brought to completion according to the nature of the whole; for it is not according to some other nature, whether one enclosing it from outside, or one enclosed within it, or one hanging apart outside it.
10. Either a jumble, an interweaving, and a scattering, or else union, order, and providence. If then it is the former, why do I even wish to go on lingering in so random a mixture and confusion? What do I care about anything else except how, at some point, to "become earth"? And why am I troubled at all? For the scattering will come upon me whatever I do. But if it is the latter, I revere it, I stand firm, and I take courage in the one who governs.
11. When you are forced by circumstances closing in around you to be somewhat disturbed, return quickly into yourself and do not go on out of rhythm any longer than necessity demands; for you will have a firmer grip on harmony by returning to it continually.
12. If you had both a stepmother and a mother at the same time, you would attend to the stepmother, and yet your return to your mother would still happen continually. That is what the court and philosophy are to you now. Return here often, and rest in her, through whom the things over there come to seem bearable to you, and you yourself bearable among them.
13. Take, for instance, forming this impression about side dishes and such foods: this is the corpse of a fish, that is the corpse of a bird or a pig; and again, that Falernian wine is a bit of grape juice, and the purple-bordered robe is sheep's wool dyed with a shellfish's blood; and in the case of sexual intercourse, it is the rubbing together of an internal membrane and, with a certain spasm, the discharge of some mucus. What powerful impressions these are, reaching the things themselves and passing straight through them, so that one sees what they really are! This is how one must act throughout one's whole life, and wherever things present themselves as too impressive and convincing, one must strip them bare, look upon their cheapness, and strip away the grand story with which they dress themselves up. For self-conceit is a clever deceiver, and precisely when you think you are most engaged with serious things, that is when it bewitches you most. Consider, then, what Crates says about Xenocrates himself.
14. Most of the things the crowd admires reduce to the most general class, things held together by mere cohesion or by nature — stones, timber, fig trees, vines, olive trees. Things admired by the somewhat more moderate reduce to what is held together by soul, such as flocks and herds. Things admired by those still more refined reduce to what is held together by a rational soul — not, however, a universal rational soul, but only insofar as it is skilled in some craft or otherwise clever, or simply owns a great number of slaves. But the one who honors a rational soul that is universal and civic no longer turns his attention to any of these other things; above all else he keeps his own soul, holding it and moving it rationally and in fellowship with others, and works together with his kin toward this same end.
15. Some things hurry to come into being, others hurry to have come and gone, and already something of what is coming into being has been extinguished. Flowings and changes renew the universe continually, just as the unbroken passage of time makes the boundless age ever new. In this river, then, in which one cannot stand still, what among the things rushing past could a person value? It is as if someone began to love one of the little sparrows flying by, and it has already vanished from sight. Such a thing, indeed, is life itself for each of us — like the exhalation from blood and the drawing of breath from air. For just as it is nothing more than drawing in the air once and giving it back, which we do each moment, so it is with giving back, to the place from which you first drew it, the whole power of breathing which you acquired at birth only yesterday or the day before.
16. Neither respiring like the plants is valuable, nor breathing like the cattle and wild beasts, nor being stamped with impressions through imagination, nor being jerked about by impulse like a puppet, nor herding together, nor being fed — for that is like excreting the waste of one's food. What then is valuable? Being applauded? No. Then neither is being applauded by tongues; for the praises of the many are just the clapping of tongues. So you have let go even of that little glory too — what is left that is valuable? I think it is this: moving and being restrained according to one's own constitution, the very thing toward which both attentive care and the arts lead. For every art aims at this, that the thing constructed should be well-suited for the work for which it was constructed; and the vinedresser tending the vine, and the horse-trainer, and the one who cares for the dog, all seek this. And what do the training of children and the teaching of them strive toward? There, then, lies what is valuable, and if this is well, you will not need to secure for yourself any of the other things. Will you not stop valuing many other things too? Then you will be neither free nor self-sufficient nor free from passion; for you will inevitably envy, be jealous, suspect those who can take those things away, and plot against those who hold what you value. In short, whoever is in need of any of those things must inevitably be in turmoil, and moreover must often find fault with the gods as well. But reverence and honor for your own mind will make you pleasing to yourself, well-fitted to your community, and attuned to the divine — approving, that is, whatever the gods allot and have ordained.
17. Up, down, in a circle — these are the movements of the elements; but the movement of virtue is in none of these, rather it goes forward on a more divine path, one hard to conceive, and fares well.
18. What a strange thing it is that they do. They are unwilling to speak well of the people living in their own time and alongside them, yet they set great store by being spoken well of by those born later, whom they have never seen and never will see. And this is not far from being distressed that those born before you did not speak well of you either.
19. Do not, just because something is hard for you to master, suppose it impossible for a human being; but whatever is possible for a human being and proper to him, consider that reachable by you too.
20. In the wrestling schools someone scratches us with his nails and, butting with his head, gives us a blow, yet we do not mark it out as an offense, nor take it amiss, nor afterward regard him with suspicion as one who plots against us; though we do stay on guard against him, not however as against an enemy nor with suspicion, but simply with good-natured avoidance. Let something like this happen in the other parts of life too; let us overlook many things done by those who are, as it were, our sparring partners. For it is possible, as I said, to avoid them without suspecting or hating them.
21. If someone can prove and show me that I do not think or act rightly, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever harmed. It is the one who persists in his own deception and ignorance who is harmed.
22. I do my own duty; nothing outside it pulls my attention away. All else is either lifeless matter, or a creature lacking reason, or a mind that has lost its bearings and cannot find the path.
23. Toward the irrational animals and, in general, toward things and objects, deal with them, since you have reason and they do not, with a great and free spirit; but toward human beings, since they have reason, deal with them as befits a community. And in all things call upon the gods. And do not fret over how long a time you will do these things; even three hours of such conduct are enough.
24. Alexander of Macedon and his mule-driver, once dead, came to the same state; for either they were taken up into the same generative principles of the universe, or they were alike scattered into atoms.
25. Consider how many things, bodily and psychic together, occur at the very same instant in each one of us. And so you will not be amazed if far more things — indeed all the things coming to be at once — subsist together in that one and all-encompassing thing which we call the universe.
26. If someone asks you how the name Antoninus is spelled, will you snap out each of its letters at him with force? So too if they grow angry, will you grow angry back? Won't you calmly go on and count out each letter in turn? Well then, remember here too that every duty is made up of a certain number of parts. These you must keep to, and without being thrown into confusion, and without answering the irritable with irritation, get on with the task before you, in due order.
27. How harsh it is not to allow people to reach for what appears to them to be their own and to their advantage. And yet in a way you don't allow them to do this, when you are indignant that they go wrong; for they are drawn, in every case, toward what seems to them their own and their advantage. —But it isn't so.— Then teach them, and show them, without being indignant.
28. Death is a rest from the pushback of the senses, from the pulling of impulse's strings, from the wandering of thought, and from service to the flesh.
29. It is shameful, in the life in which your body does not give out, for your soul to give out first.
30. Watch that you don't become thoroughly Caesar-ized, that you don't get dyed with that purple — for it does happen. So keep yourself simple, good, unmixed, dignified, unadorned, a friend of justice, reverent toward the gods, kindly, affectionate, strong for the tasks that are fitting. Fight to remain the man philosophy wished to make you. Revere the gods, save mankind. Life is short; the one fruit of earthly existence is a holy disposition and actions for the common good. Do everything as a disciple of Antoninus: his vigor in acting according to reason, his evenness everywhere, his holiness, the serenity of his face, his gentleness, his freedom from vanity, his eagerness to grasp matters accurately; and how he would never let anything go until he had first looked at it thoroughly and understood it clearly; and how he bore those who blamed him unjustly without blaming them back; how he was never in a hurry about anything; how he did not accept slander; how he was a precise examiner of characters and actions, not given to reproach, not timid, not suspicious, not a sophist; how he was satisfied with little — housing, bedding, clothing, food, service; how he was hard-working and patient; and how, because of his simple diet, he was able to remain at the same task until evening, not even needing to relieve himself outside his usual hour; and the steadiness and constancy of his friendships; and his tolerance of those who spoke frankly against his opinions, and his joy when someone showed him something better; and how he was reverent toward the gods without superstition — so that your last hour may find you with as clear a conscience as his.
31. Sober up, call yourself back, and having shaken off sleep once more and realized that what disturbed you were only dreams, look now, wide awake, at these things here, just as you looked at those.
32. I am made up of a little body and a soul. For the little body, all things are indifferent, for it cannot make distinctions. For the mind, everything is indifferent that is not its own activity; but whatever is its own activity, all of that lies within its power. And of these, moreover, it concerns itself only with the present; for its future and past activities are themselves, even now, indifferent.
33. Toil is not against nature for the hand or the foot, so long as the foot does the work of a foot and the hand the work of a hand. So too toil is not against nature for a human being as a human being, so long as he does what belongs to a human being. And if it is not against his nature, then it is not an evil for him either.
34. What great pleasures robbers, deviants, parricides, and tyrants have enjoyed.
35. Don't you see how ordinary craftsmen will accommodate themselves to laymen up to a point, yet none the less hold fast to the principle of their craft and cannot bear to depart from it? Isn't it strange, then, if the architect and the doctor will show more respect for the principle of their own craft than a human being does for his own — a principle he shares in common with the gods?
36. Asia, Europe — corners of the universe; every sea a drop in the universe; Athos a little clod of the universe; every present moment of time a point in eternity. All things are small, quick to change, vanishing away. Everything comes from there, setting out from that one common ruling source, either directly or as a consequence. And so the gaping jaws of the lion, and poison, and every harmful thing — like a thorn, like mud — are all after-growths of those solemn and beautiful things. So do not imagine them as foreign to that which you revere, but reckon up the source of all things together.
37. Whoever has seen the present has seen everything — both all that has come to be from eternity, and all that will be into infinity; since everything shares a single kind and a single shape.
38. Consider often the interweaving of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For in a way all things are intertwined with one another, and in this respect are friendly to one another; for one thing follows on another because of the tension of motion, and the common breath, and the unity of substance.
39. Fit yourself to the circumstances allotted to you, and the people who share your lot, love them — but truly.
40. Any instrument, tool, or vessel is in good order if it does what it was made for — even though the one who made it is nowhere near. But in the things held together by nature, the power that made them is present within and remains; all the more reason to revere it, and to trust that if you keep and conduct yourself according to its will, everything is going for you according to mind. So too, for the whole, its own affairs go according to mind.
41. Whatever of the things not in our power you set down for yourself as good or bad, it is inevitable that when such a bad thing befalls you, or such a good thing eludes you, you will blame the gods, and hate the men who are or are suspected of being the causes of the loss or the mishap; and indeed we do much wrong because of the value we place on these things. But if we judge as good and bad only what is up to us, no cause is left either to accuse a god or to take up a hostile stand against a man.
42. All of us work together toward one outcome, some knowingly and with understanding, others without awareness — just as, I think, Heraclitus says that even sleepers are workers and fellow-laborers in what happens in the universe. One person contributes in one way, another in another, and even the one who finds fault and tries to resist and undo what is happening contributes in abundance — for the universe had need of that sort too. So then, understand which group you are ranking yourself among; for the one who administers the whole will in any case make good use of you and receive you as some part of his fellow-workers and collaborators. But you — do not become the kind of part that is the cheap and ridiculous line in the play, the one Chrysippus mentions.
43. Does the sun claim to do the work of the rain? Does Asclepius claim the work of Demeter, the giver of harvests? Consider likewise each star — are they not different, yet working together toward the same end?
44. If the gods took counsel about me and about what ought to befall me, they took counsel well; for it is not easy even to conceive of a god without counsel. As for what reason would they have set out to do me harm? What advantage would come to them, or to the common good which they care for above all, from that? But if they took no counsel privately about me in particular, they certainly took counsel about things in common, and whatever follows as a consequence of these I am bound to welcome and embrace. But if in fact they take counsel about nothing at all — which it is impious to believe, or else let us stop sacrificing, praying, swearing oaths, and doing the other things we do on each occasion as though the gods were present and living alongside us — but if in fact they take counsel about none of the things that concern us, then the deliberating falls to me alone, and working out my own benefit is my job. And what benefits each creature is whatever fits its particular makeup and design — mine being a rational, civic one. As Antoninus, my city and fatherland is Rome; as a human being, it is the universe. What benefits these cities, then, is alone what is good for me.
45. Whatever happens to each thing is advantageous for the whole — that would be enough to say. But if you watch closely you will see this too, as a general rule: what is advantageous to one person is also advantageous to other people. But let "advantageous" now be taken in the more common sense, as applied to things indifferent.
46. Just as the shows in the amphitheater and places like it grow tiresome to you because it is always the same things being seen, and the sameness of kind makes the spectacle sickening — so too you should feel about the whole of life; for everything, top to bottom, is the same things and from the same things. How long, then?
47. Constantly keep in mind all sorts of people, of all sorts of pursuits and every sort of nation, now dead — so that you come down as far as Philistion and Phoebus and Origanion. Now pass on to the other tribes; there we must move on to where so many powerful orators are, so many venerable philosophers — Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates — so many heroes of earlier times, so many generals and tyrants of later times; and besides these, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, other sharp and great-minded natures, hard-working, cunning, self-willed, mockers even of human life itself, precarious and short-lived as it is — men like Menippus and all like him. About all of these, keep in mind that they have long since been laid low. What is so terrible in that for them? And what of those not even named at all? One thing here is worth much: to live out one's life with truth and justice, kindly disposed even toward liars and wrongdoers.
48. When you want to cheer yourself up, think of the good qualities of those who live alongside you — the energy of one, say, the modesty of another, the generosity of another, and something else in another. For nothing so delights as the likenesses of the virtues appearing in the temperaments of the people beside us, all bunched together as many as possible at once. So keep them ready to hand.
49. Why be upset that you weigh only so many pounds and not three hundred? Just so with the fact that you must live only so many years and not more: just as you accept the portion of substance allotted to you, so accept it with time as well.
50. Try to persuade them, but act even against their will, whenever the reasoning of justice leads that way. If someone resists using force, though, turn instead to what is agreeable and free of pain, and use the obstruction as material for a different virtue; and remember that you set out with a reservation, and that you were not reaching for the impossible. For what, then, were you reaching? For an impulse of a certain kind. And that you attain: whatever we were driven toward, that comes to be.
51. The lover of glory supposes another's activity to be his own good; the lover of pleasure supposes his own sensation to be it; but the man of understanding supposes his own action to be it.
52. It is possible to form no judgment about a thing and not be troubled in soul; for the things themselves have no natural power to produce our judgments.
53. Train yourself to attend without distraction to what someone else is saying, and as far as possible to get inside the speaker's mind.
54. What does not benefit the hive does not benefit the bee either.
55. If sailors spoke ill of the helmsman, or the sick of the doctor, would they be listening to anyone else — or would the helmsman himself do anything other than work out the safety of those sailing with him, or the doctor the health of those under his care?
56. How many of those with whom I entered the world have already departed from it.
57. To the jaundiced, honey tastes bitter; to those bitten by a mad dog, water is terrifying; and to children, a little ball is a fine thing. Why then am I angry? Do you think falsehood has less power than bile has over the jaundiced man, or venom over the man bitten by a mad dog?
58. No one will prevent you from living according to the reasoning of your own nature; and nothing will happen to you contrary to the reasoning of universal nature.
59. Consider what sort of people they are whom they wish to please, and by what gains and through what actions. How quickly the age will cover everything over — and how much it has already covered.