Marcus Aurelius:  The Meditations (excerpts)

Last of the so-called Five Great Emperors, Marcus Aurelius (161-180AD) spent the last fourteen years of his reign in military encampments along the Danube River fending off the attacks of tribesmen from the North.  It was during this period that he wrote his famous Meditations, a series of essays expressing the fundamental principles of Stoic philosophy.    

BOOK TWO 

BEGIN the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away. 

All that I am is is a little flesh and breath, and the part that rules it all.. Throw away your books; no longer distract yourself: it is not allowed; but as if you were now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and a network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries. See the breath also, what kind of a thing it is, air, and not always the same, but every moment sent out and again sucked in. The third then is the ruling part: consider thus: You are an old man; no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to selfish movements, cease to be disgruntled with your lot today, or shrink from the future...

Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what you have at hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of humanity, freedom, and justice; free your mind from all other thoughts.  You can do this if you approach every act of your life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, all hypocrisy, self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to you.  See how few the things are which man must have to live a life that flows in quietness, and is like the existence of the gods; for the gods on their part will require nothing more from him who observes these things.

BOOK FOUR 

Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, by the seashore, in the mountains; and you too are wont to desire such things very much. But this is a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you choose to retire within yourself. For nowhere can a man find greater quiet or untroubled retreat than in his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that he need only contemplate to find himself immediately in perfect tranquility; a tranquility that is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Constantly then give to yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.  Let your principles be brief and fundamental, so that once you shalt recur to them, it will be sufficient to cleanse the soul completely, and to send you back free from all discontent with the things to which you are returning...

This then remains: Remember to retire into this little territory of your own, and above all do not distract or strain yourself, but be free, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal. But keep above all readiest to your hand these two points.  One is that things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only from the thought that is within. The other is that all these things, which you see, change immediately and will no longer be.  Constantly bear in mind how many of these changes you have already witnessed. The universe is transformation: life is thought. 

If the power of thought is universal among men, so too is the power of reason, by virtue of which we are rational beings: if this is so, we also hold in common the reason which commands us what to do, and what not to do.  So therefore, there is a common law also; and if this is so, we are fellow-citizens, members of a common political community,  and therefore, the world is in a sense a single state. Is there any other common political community that will claim the whole human race are members? And it is from this common political community our very minds and reason and law derive.  From where else could they come?  For the earthly part of me comes from earth, and the watery from another element, and that which is hot and fiery from some different source (for nothing comes out of nothing, or can return to nothing), so also mind must come from some source. 

BOOK FIVE

In the morning when you rise unwillingly, have this thought in readiness: "I am rising to the work of man."  Why then am I dissatisfied if I am
going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?  Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed-clothes and keep
myself warm?  "But this is more pleasant."  Were you born then for pleasure, and not for action or exertion? Do you not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to bring order into their particular parts of the universe? And do you refuse to do man's share of the work, rather than hastening to do what nature has ordained?  "But one must also rest."  This is true, but nature has fixed limits to this too: she has fixed limits both to eating and drinking, and yet you go beyond these bounds, beyond what is sufficient.  But in your actions, you stop far short of what you might acheive.