Marcus Aurelius
From Wikiquote
Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was a Stoic philosopher, and Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180; born Marcus Annius Catilius Severus, at marriage he took the name Marcus Annius Verus. When named Emperor, he was given the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and afterwards became known as the last of the "Five Good Emperors."
Contents |
[edit] Quotes
[edit] Meditations (c. 161–180 CE)
- These were writings of Aurelius as reminders to himself of ideas to bear in mind. There are many different translations of these, often with different nuances of interpretation (and sometimes different arrangements).
[edit] Book I
- He was a man who looked at what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man's acts.
- I, 16.
[edit] Book II
- Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill.
- II, 1.
- This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.
- II, 2.
- All that is from the gods is full of Providence.
- II, 3.
- You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.
- II, 5.
- Thou seest how few be the things, the which if a man has at his command his life flows gently on and is divine.
- II, 5.
- Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
- II, 7.
- This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole...
- Τούτων ἀεὶ μεμνῆσθαι, τίς ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις
- II, 9.
- The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
- II, 14
- Remember that all is opinion.
- II, 15
- No state sorrier than that of the man who keeps up a continual round, and pries into "the secrets of the nether world," as saith the poet, and is curious in conjecture of what is in his neighbour's heart.
- II, 13.
- Though thou be destined to live three thousand years and as many myriads besides, yet remember that no man loseth other life than that which he liveth, nor liveth other than that which he loseth.
- II, 14.
- For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his? So remember these two points: first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
- II, 14.
- As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
- II, 17.
[edit] Book III
- What means all this?
- III, 3.
- Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.
- III, 4.
- The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.
- III, 4.
- Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.
- III, 5.
- A man should be upright, not kept upright.
- III, 5.
- But that which is useful is the better.
- III, 6.
- Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
- III, 7
- Respect the faculty that forms thy judgments.
- III, 9.
- Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.
- III, 10.
- Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
- III, 11.
- As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.
- III, 13.
[edit] Book IV
- The ruling power within, when it is in its natural state, is so related to outer circumstances that it easily changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do.
- IV, 1.
- Let no act be done at haphazard, nor otherwise than according to the finished rules that govern its kind.
- IV, 2.
- By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
- IV, 3.
- Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul
- IV, 3.
- The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
- Variant: The universe is flux, life is opinion.
- Variant: The universe is transformation: life is opinion. (George Long)
- ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις.
- IV, 3.
- Think on this doctrine,—that reasoning beings were created for one another's sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it.
- IV, 3.
- Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.
- IV, 4.
- If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common.' If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left undone is common. If this be so, law also is common; if this be so, we are citizens; if this be so, we are partakers in one constitution; if this be so, the Universe is a kind of Commonwealth.
- IV, 4 (as translated by ASL Farquharson)
- Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.
- IV, 5.
- That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.
- IV, 8.
- Whatever happens at all happens as it should; you will find this true, if you watch narrowly.
- IV, 10
- Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.
- IV, 14 (trans. Meric Casaubon)
- Variant: Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
- τὸ χρεὼν ἐπήρτηται· ἕως ζῇς, ἕως ἔξεστιν, ἀγαθὸς γενοῦ.
- IV, 17 (trans. George Long)
- Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference.
- IV, 15.
- How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
- IV, 18
- Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.
- IV, 20.
- Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.
- Variant: That which is really beautiful has no need of anything. (trans. George Long)
- IV, 20
- All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.
- Πᾶν μοι συναρμόζει ὃ σοὶ εὐάρμοστόν ἐστιν, ὦ κόσμε· οὐδέν μοι πρόωρον οὐδὲ ὄψιμον ὃ σοὶ εὔκαιρον. πᾶν μοι καρπὸς ὃ φέρουσιν αἱ σαὶ ὧραι, ὦ φύσις· ἐκ σοῦ πάντα, ἐν σοὶ πάντα, εἰς σὲ πάντα. ἐκεῖνος μέν φησιν·
- IV, 23
- "Let your occupations be few," says the sage, "if you would lead a tranquil life."
- Ὀλίγα πρῆσσε, φησίν, εἰ μέλλεις εὐθυμήσειν
- IV, 24
- Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
- IV, 31.
- Remember this— that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
- IV, 32.
- All is ephemeral — fame and the famous as well.
- Πᾶν ἐφήμερον, καὶ τὸ μνημονεῦον καὶ τὸ μνημονευόμενον.
- IV, 35.
- Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them.
- IV, 36.
- Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.
- IV, 38.
- 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.
- IV, 40.
- Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.
- IV, 41.
- Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
- IV, 43.
- All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.
- IV, 44.
- That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.
- IV, 45.
- Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man - yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.
- IV, 48.
- Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
- IV, 50.
- Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.
- IV, 51.
[edit] Book V
- At dawn of day, when you dislike being called, have this thought ready: "I am called to man's labour; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?"
- Ὄρθρου, ὅταν δυσόκνως ἐξεγείρῃ, πρόχειρον ἔστω ὅτι ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπου ἔργον ἐγείρομαι· ἔτι οὖν δυσκολαίνω, εἰ πορεύομαι ἐπὶ τὸ ποιεῖν ὧν ἕνεκεν γέγονα καὶ ὧν χάριν προῆγμαι εἰς τὸν κόσμον; ἢ ἐπὶ τοῦτο κατεσκεύασμαι, ἵνα κατακείμενος ἐν στρωματίοις ἐμαυτὸν θάλπω;
- V, 1 (as translated by ASL Farquharson).
- A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.
- V, 6.
- Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
- V, 9.
- To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the bad should not do something of this kind.
- Τὸ τὰ ἀδύνατα διώκειν μανικόν· ἀδύνατον δὲ τὸ τοὺς φαύλους μὴ τοιαῦτά τινα ποιεῖν.
- V, 17.
- Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
- Οὐδὲν οὐδενὶ συμβαίνει ὃ οὐχὶ ἐκεῖνο πέφυκε φέρειν.
- V, 18.
- Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.
- V, 21.
- Live with the gods.
- V, 27.
- Art thou angry with him whose arm-pits stink?
- V, 28.
- The intelligence of the universe is social.
- V, 30.
[edit] Book VI
- Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.
- Ἔσω βλέπε· μηδενὸς πράγματος μήτε ἡ ἰδία ποιότης μήτε ἡ ἀξία παρατρεχέτω σε.
- VI, 3.
- The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
- VI, 5.
- Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.
- Μή, εἴ τι αὐτῷ σοὶ δυσκαταπόνητον, τοῦτο ἀνθρώπῳ ἀδύνατον ὑπολαμβάνειν, ἀλλ εἴ τι ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατὸν καὶ οἰκεῖον, τοῦτο καὶ σεαυτῷ ἐφικτὸν νομίζειν.
- VI, 19.
- If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.
- VI, 21.
- Death,—a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.
- VI, 28.
- Take heed not to be transformed into a Caesar, not to be dipped in the purple dye, for it does happen. Keep yourself therefore, simple, good, pure, grave, unaffected, the friend of justice, religious, kind, affectionate, strong for your proper work. Wrestle to be the man philosophy wished to make you. Reverence the gods, save men. Life is brief; there is but one harvest of earthly existence, a holy disposition and neighborly acts.
- Ὅρα μὴ ἀποκαισαρωθῇς, μὴ βαφῇς· γίνεται γάρ. τήρησον οὖν σεαυτὸν ἁπλοῦν, ἀγαθόν, ἀκέραιον, σεμνόν, ἄκομψον, τοῦ δικαίου φίλον, θεοσεβῆ, εὐμενῆ, φιλόστοργον, ἐρρωμένον πρὸς τὰ πρέποντα ἔργα. ἀγώνισαι, ἵνα τοιοῦτος συμμείνῃς, οἷόν σε ἠθέλησε ποιῆσαι φιλοσοφία. αἰδοῦ θεούς, σῷζε ἀνθρώπους. βραχὺς ὁ βίος· εἷς καρπὸς τῆς ἐπιγείου ζωῆς, διάθεσις ὁσία καὶ πράξεις κοινωνικαί.
- VI, 30.
- Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life.
- VI, 30.
- I consist of a little body and a soul.
- VI, 32.
- Adapt yourself to the environment in which your lot has been cast, and show true love to the fellow-mortals with whom destiny has surrounded you.
- Οἷς συγκεκλήρωσαι πράγμασι, τούτοις συνάρμοζε σεαυτόν, καὶ οἷς συνείληχας ἀνθρώποις, τούτους φίλει, ἀλλ ἀληθινῶς.
- VI, 39.
- But if we judge only those things which are in our power to be good or bad, there remains no reason either for finding fault with God or standing in a hostile attitude to man.
- VI, 41.
- What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.
- VI, 54.
- How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.
- VI, 56.
[edit] Book VII
- Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.
- VII, 3.
- How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!
- VII, 6.
- All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been co-ordinated, and they combine to make up the same universe. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one god who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, and one reason.
- Πάντα ἀλλήλοις ἐπιπέπλεκται καὶ ἡ σύνδεσις ἱερά, καὶ σχεδόν τι οὐδὲν ἀλλότριον ἄλλο ἄλλωι· συγκατατέτακται γὰρ καὶ συγκοσμεῖ τὸν αὐτὸν κόσμον. κόσμος τε γὰρ εἷς ἐξ ἁπάντων καὶ θεὸς εἷς δι᾽ ἁπάντων καὶ οὐσία μία καὶ νόμος εἷς, λόγος κοινὸς πάντων τῶν νοερῶν ζώιων, καὶ ἀλήθεια μία, εἴγε καὶ τελειότης μία τῶν ὁμογενῶν καὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου μετεχόντων ζώιων.
- VII, 9.
- To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.
- VII, 11.
- Be thou erect, or be made erect.
- VII, 12.
- Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?
- VII, 18.
- Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.
- Ἐγγὺς μὲν ἡ σὴ περὶ πάντων λήθη, ἐγγὺς δὲ ἡ πάντων περὶ σοῦ λήθη.
- VII, 21.
- It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.
- Ἴδιον ἀνθρώπου φιλεῖν καὶ τοὺς πταίοντας.
- VII, 22.
- Nature which governs the whole will soon change all things which thou seest, and out of there substance will make other things, and again other things from the substance of them, in order that the world may ever be new.
- VII, 25 (See also Charles Darwin).
- Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou hast already.
- VII, 27.
- Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.
- VII, 34.
- From Antisthenes: It is royal to do good and be abused.
- VII, 36.
- Look within. Within is the fountain of the good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
- VII, 59.
- The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.
- VII, 61.
- Very little is needed to make a happy life.
- ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι·
- VII, 67
- The nature of the All moved to make the universe.
- VII, 75
[edit] Book VIII
- A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.
- VIII, 2
- You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.
- Ὅτι οὐδὲν ἧττον τὰ αὐτὰ ποιήσουσι, κἂν σὺ διαρραγῇς.
- VIII, 4
- To change your mind and to follow him who sets you right is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.
- VIII, 16
- Variant: Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects thy error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error.
- VIII, 16 (trans. George Long)
- Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.
- Πρόσεχε τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ ἢ τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ ἢ τῷ δόγματι ἢ τῷ σημαινομένῳ.
- VIII, 22
- It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man.
- VIII, 26
- If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.
- VIII, 38
- If...it be a thing external that causes thy grief, know, that it is not that properly that doth cause it, but thine own conceit and opinion concerning the thing: which thou mayest rid thyself of, when thou wilt.
- VIII, 45.
- Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.
- VIII, 51.
- He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.
- VIII, 52.
- All men are made one for another: either then teach them better, or bear with them.
- VIII, 56 (trans. Meric Casaubon).
- Variant: Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.
- VIII, 59 (trans. George Long).
- Οἱ ἄνθρωποι γεγόνασιν ἀλλήλων ἕνεκεν· ἢ δίδασκε οὖν ἢ φέρε.
- He who fears death either fears to lose all sensation or fears new sensations. In reality, you will either feel nothing at all, and therefore nothing evil, or else, if you can feel any sensations, you will be a new creature, and so will not have ceased to have life.
- VIII, 58.
[edit] Book IX
- The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.
- IX, 1.
- He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.
- IX, 2.
- Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
- IX, 3.
- A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.
- Ἀδικεῖ πολλάκις ὁ μὴ ποιῶν τι, οὐ μόνον ὁ ποιῶν τι.
- IX, 5.
- Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
- IX, 7.
- Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
- IX, 9.
- All things are the same,—familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.
- IX, 14.
- The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
- IX, 16.
- All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
- IX, 19.
- Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it…. Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
- IX, 29.
- He that dies in extreme old age will be reduced to the same state with him that is cut down untimely.
- IX, 33.
- The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything!
- IX, 36.
[edit] Book X
- Whatever may befall you, it was preordained for you from everlasting.
- X, 5.
- Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
- Μηκέθ ὅλως περὶ τοῦ οἷόν τινα εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα διαλέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ εἶναι τοιοῦτον.
- X, 16
- "The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy ether knoweth what love is." The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.
- X, 21.
- What then does not harm law does not harm either state or citizen.
- X, 33.
- Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life,—there, if one must speak out, the real man.
- X, 38.
[edit] Book XI
- Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop doing such good.
- XI, 4.
- There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.
- XI, 10.
- The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.
- XI, 15.
- Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of Lamiae, bugbears to frighten children.
- XI, 23.
- And virtue they will curse, speaking harsh words.
- XI, 32.
[edit] Book XII
- All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.
- XII, 1.
- If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it. For let thy efforts be —
- XII, 17.
- Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
- XII, 22.
- Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
- τί λοιπὸν ἢ ἀπολαύειν τοῦ ζῆν συνάπτοντα ἄλλο ἐπ ἄλλῳ ἀγαθόν, ὥστε μηδὲ τὸ βραχύτατον διάστημα ἀπολείπειν;
- XII, 29.
- Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and infinite other things. There is one common substance, though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among several natures and individual limitations. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.
- XII, 30.
- Depart then satisfied, for he also who releases thee is satisfied.
- XII, 36.
[edit] Misattributed
- Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
- No printed sources exist for this prior to 2010, and this seems to have been an attribution which arose on the internet, as indicated by web searches and rationales provided at "Marcus Aurelius and source checking" at Three Shouts on a Hilltop (14 June 2011)
- This quote may be a paraphrase of "Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence?" from Meditations, Book II, but the quote in question has a quite different meaning.
[edit] Further reading
- The Stoic And Epicurean Philosophers.. The Complete Extant Writings, Random House, New York, 1940
