My notes and excerpts from the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Set 3 reproduced in this blog post for your reading:
Remember that as it is a shame to be surprised if the fig-tree produces figs, so it is to be surprised if the
world produces such and such things of which it is productive.
Short lived are both the praiser and the praised, and the rememberer and the remembered.
Attend to the matter which is before thee, whether it is an opinion or an act or a word.
Remember this then, that this little compound, thyself, must either be dissolved, or thy poor breath must be extinguished, or be removed and placed elsewhere.
Wipe out thy imaginations by often saying to thyself: Now it is in my power to let no badness be in this soul, nor desire, nor any perturbation at all.
Receive [wealth or prosperity] without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.
If thou takest away thy opinion about that which appears to give thee pain, thou thyself standest in perfect security.—Who is this self?—The reason.—But I am not reason.—Be it so. Let then the reason itself not trouble itself.
Take me and cast me where thou wilt; for there I shall keep my divine part tranquil, that is, content, if it can feel and act comformably to its proper constitution.
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it.
He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different kind of sensation. But if thou shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou feel any harm; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensation, thou wilt be a different kind of living being and thou wilt not cease to live.
Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.
As thou now waitest for the time when the child shall come out of thy wife’s womb, so be ready for the time when thy soul shall fall out of this envelope.
Wipe out imagination; check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power.
To-day I have got out of all trouble, or rather I have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside, but within and in my opinions.
Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear?
Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things which come from the external cause.
Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks. Why art thou disturbed? What is there new in this? What unsettles thee?
Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing else than mixture and dispersion. Why, then, art thou disturbed?
Wilt thou never enjoy an affectionate and contented disposition? Wilt thou never be full and without a want of any kind, longing for nothing more, nor desiring anything, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures?
Whether the universe is [a concourse of] atoms, or nature [is a system], let this first be established, that I am a part of the whole which is governed by nature; By remembering, then, that I am a part of such a whole, I shall be content with everything that happens.
Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things which are assigned to thee by the common nature; Magnanimity is the elevation of the intelligent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations of the flesh.
He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.
In contemplating thyself never include the vessel which surrounds thee and these instruments which are attached about it.
What a soul that is which is ready, if at any moment it must be separated from the body, and ready either to be extinguished or dispersed or continue to exist.
A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut off from the whole tree also.
If the things do not come to thee, the pursuits and avoidances of which disturb thee, still in a manner thou goest to them. Let then thy judgment about them be at rest, and they will remain quiet, and thou wilt not be seen either pursuing or avoiding.
For in the same degree in which a man’s mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength.
Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself.
God sees the minds [ruling principles] of all men bared of the material vesture and rind and impurities.
For he who regards not the poor flesh which envelops him, surely will not trouble himself by looking after raiment and dwelling and fame and such like externals and show.
The things are three of which thou art composed: a little body, a little breath [life], intelligence. Of these the first two are thine, so far as it is thy duty to take care of them; but the third alone is properly thine.
I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.
Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.
Perceive at last that thou hast in thee something better and more divine than the things which cause the various affects, and as it were pull thee by the strings.
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 infinite natures and individual circumscriptions [or individuals]. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.
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