My notes and excerpts from the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Set 2 reproduced on this blog post for your reading:
How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquillity.
And so accept everything which happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity of Zeus [the universe].
For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance.
I am composed of the formal and the material; and neither of them will perish into non-existence, as neither of them came into existence out of non-existence.
Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever.
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul.
Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art.
Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let it not unite with them.
Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social act to another social act, thinking of God.
When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a manner, quickly return to thyself, and do not continue out of tune longer than the compulsion lasts; for thou wilt have more mastery over the harmony by continually recurring to it.
I do my duty: other things trouble me not; for they are either things without life, or things without reason, or things that have rambled and know not the way.
How cruel it is not to allow men to strive After the things which appear to them to be suitable to their nature and profitable!
Death is a cessation of the impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the strings which move the appetites, and of the discursive movements of the thoughts, and of the service to the flesh.
All things are little, changeable, perishable. All things come from thence, from that universal ruling power, either directly proceeding or by way of sequence.
Be not dissatisfied then that thou must live only so many years and not more; for as thou art satisfied with the amount of substance which has been assigned to thee, so be content with the time.
It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgments.
There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.
It is thy duty then in the midst of such things to show good humor and not a proud air; to understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.
Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole; and everything formal [causal] is very soon taken back into the universal reason; and the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
The leading principle in itself wants nothing, unless it makes a want for itself; and therefore it is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not disturb and impede itself.
The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now moulds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else; and each of these things subsists for a very short time. But it is no hardship for the vessel to be broken up, just as there was none in its being fastened together.
When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry.
Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of the things which thou hast select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however, take care that thou dost not through being so pleased with them accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou shouldst not have them.
Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of the strings. Confine thyself to the present.
Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty, and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God.
That which has grown from the earth to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns.
Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee.
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
It is in thy power to live free from all compulsion in the greatest tranquillity of mind.
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