Don’t act as if you had ten thousand years to live. Fate hangs over you. While you live and while you still can, be good. – Book 4: Meditation 17

Pay attention to the matter at hand, whether it is an opinion or an act or a word. – Book 8: Meditation 22

Guard equally against getting angry with people or flattering them. Both are anti-social and hurtful. Keep this thought handy for when you are angry: getting carried away by emotion is unfit for a man. Mildness and gentleness are more in keeping with human nature, and for that reason they are also more manly. Strength, nerve and courage all belong to people with these qualities, not the man who is subject to fits of resentment and indignation. The closer we are to freedom from emotional turmoil, the closer we are to real strength. Resentment is a mark of weakness. So is anger. You are crippled when you give in to either. – Book 11: Meditation 18

Nature, which governs the universe, will soon change all the things you see, and out of their substance will make other things, and again other things from the substance of those, so that the world may remain forever new. – Book 7: Meditation 25

To change your mind and follow the person who corrects you is just as much a free act as to discover what is right and just on your own, without help. All you need do is exercise your natural impulse and judgment, and your own understanding too. – Book 8: Meditation 16

See how much easier a life you have when you don’t pay attention to what your neighbor said or did or was thinking, but only to what you do yourself to be just and reverent and entirely good. Ill-nature isn’t worth paying attention to. Look straight ahead, and stay the course. – Book 4: Meditation 18

All those things you hope to achieve by a roundabout way, you can have and enjoy right now, if you don’t grudge the true way to happiness. Which is to forget the past entirely, trust the future to Providence, and steer your present thoughts towards reverence and justice. Reverence, so that you cherish your assigned role, for nature brought it to you and you to it. Justice, so that you always speak the truth freely and plainly and act in keeping with law and human dignity. Don’t become entangled in anyone else’s malice or opinion or words – still less the sensitivities of your own poor, pampered body. Your capacity for suffering will take care of itself. And when the time comes to depart this life, if you abandon everything else and respect only your inner power and the divine spirit within you – if you fear not your eventual death but the possibility of never having lived in harmony with nature – then you will become fully human, and worthy of the universe in which you had your beginning. Then you will cease to be a stranger in your own country, and to wonder at everyday occurrences as if they were strange or unexpected, and anxiously depend on things you cannot change. – Book 12: Meditation 1

The person to whom the only good is what comes in due season, to whom it is the same to have done more or fewer acts according to right reason and to whom it makes no difference to view the spectacle of this world for a longer or a shorter time – for this person death is nothing to be afraid of. – Book 12: Meditation 35

Nothing happens to anyone that they are not naturally capable of bearing. – Book 5: Meditation 18

Whatever may happen to you, it was fashioned for you from all eternity. And from eternity the web of causes was spinning out the substance of your being and whatever happens to it. – Book 10: Meditation 5

The proper role of reason and intelligence is to set limits, and never give in to sensual or instinctive urges, for both are animal in nature. The intelligence claims superiority and will not be overpowered. And rightly so, for it was formed to make use of our other senses. A rational constitution is neither quick to judge nor easily deceived. Then let your inner guide, which has all this, keep a straight course and own what is its own. – Book 7: Meditation 55

I do my duty. Other things don’t trouble me. For they are either things without life, or things without reason, or things that have wandered and don’t know the way. – Book 6: Meditation 22

Either you are living your life here, and are used to it. Or you are departing, and that is what you wanted. Or you are dying, and your duties are fulfilled. There really is nothing else besides these things. Keep cheerful, then. – Book 10: Meditation 22

Death and life, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty – being neither virtues nor vices, they all come to good people and bad alike. Therefore, they are neither good nor evil. – Book 2: Meditation 11

The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant. And reason, which governs it, has in itself no motive whatever for doing evil. For it has no malice. It does no wrong to anything. Nothing is ever harmed by it. But everything comes into being and is fulfilled according to it. – Book 6: Meditation 1

Generally, human wickedness does no harm whatever to the universe. And individual wickedness does no harm to anyone but the wicked man. It is harmful only to the one man who has it in his power to be rid of it once and for all, whenever he so desires. – Book 8: Meditation 55

Not in passivity but in activity do good and evil consist for a rational and social being. Likewise virtue and vice lie not in passivity but in activity. – Book 9: Meditation 16

“I feel awful because this terrible thing happened to me.” No! Rather, “I’m happy, because even though it happened to me I can carry on, free of pain. I am not crushed by the present. I am not afraid of the future.” For the thing might have happened to anyone, but not everyone would have kept free of pain. Why then is one a misfortune and the other good fortune? Can you say it’s a misfortune in human terms, when it is not a check to human nature? Do you suppose it’s a check to human nature when it’s not against nature’s will? Well, you yourself are a follower of nature’s will. So can what has happened prevent you from being just? Or magnanimous? Or temperate? Or wise? Or prudent? Or loyal, modest, free? Or from being everything else which together rightly belongs to human nature and makes life worth living? And so, on every occasion of sorrow, remember to apply this principle: that the misfortune that happens to you is nothing in itself, but that to bear it nobly is true happiness. – Book 4: Meditation 49

An instrument, tool or implement of any sort does what it is designed to do, even if its maker isn’t present. But with things formed naturally, the power that made them is present, and abides within them. Accordingly you must revere this power all the more. Acknowledge that if you yourself live and act according to its will, everything will go as it should for you – and for everything else as well. – Book 6: Meditation 40

Either there is a fatal necessity and inflexible order, or a forgiving Providence, or an utterly purposeless and merciless chaos. If inflexible necessity, why resist? But if there is an understanding and caring Providence, make yourself worthy of God’s help. But if undirected chaos, rest content that in such a tempest you have within yourself a certain ruling intelligence. And even if the tempest carries you away, let it carry away your poor flesh, breath, everything! Your intelligence will not be carried away. – Book 12: Meditation 14

Universal nature initiated the creation of the world. Either everything that occurs is a logical consequence, or else everything is irrational, even the most crucial events towards which the ruling power of the universe appears to be moving of its own accord. Remember this, and you will feel more serene about a lot of things. – Book 7: Meditation 75

Pass through this short space of time in accordance with nature, and gently end your journey the way a ripe olive falls, blessing the earth that produced it and thanking the tree on which it grew. – Book 4: Meditation 48

Nature has not so utterly mixed you up as to deny you the power to set your own limits and take responsibility for yourself. It’s all too possible to be a god on earth yet not be recognized by anyone! Remember this. And another thing: remember that you need very little to live a happy life. If you have abandoned all hope of being a great thinker or scientist, don’t on that account give up being free, modest, sociable and obedient to God. – Book 7: Meditation 67

Before long you will be nobody and nowhere. And none of the things you now see or people now living will exist. For all things are formed by nature to change and be changed, and to perish so that other things may continually come into being. – Book 12: Meditation 21

It is possible to have no opinions about things, yet not be confused spiritually. For things themselves have no natural power to form our judgments. – Book 6: Meditation 52

Nature takes substance and makes a horse. Like a sculptor with wax. And then melts it down and uses the material for a tree. Then for a person. Then for something else. Each existing only briefly. It does the container no harm to be put together, and none to be taken apart. – Book 7: Meditation: 23

Who can change people’s beliefs? But without a change of beliefs, what else is there but slavery – people groaning and pretending to obey? – Book 9: Meditation 29

In speech, pay attention to what is said and watch carefully for the real significance of every single word. Likewise observe every bodily movement or gesture, and you should be able to see directly what it refers to. – Book 7: Meditation 4

A person who follows reason in every respect is at once serene and flexible, and at the same time cheerful and possessed of self-control. – Book 10: Meditation 12

There are three relationships to consider in this life: to the divine cause from which all things originate, to those who live with you, and to the body that surrounds you. – Book 8: Meditation 27

Consider yourself fit for every word and deed in accordance with nature, and do not let any resulting criticisms or remarks distract you. If it’s a good thing you’re doing or saying, don’t disparage yourself. Others have their own inner power and obey their own particular instincts. Pay no attention, but carry on, following your own nature and universal nature. The way of both natures is one. – Book 5: Meditation 3

There are some people who, when they have done someone else a good turn, are ready to keep score and expect repayment. Others, though they may not insist on being repaid, still tend to consider the other person as their debtor, and his awareness of what they have done as acknowledging a debt. But there are others still who do not even know what they have done, but are like a vine that has produced grapes and seeks nothing more than to have borne fruit. A horse after a race, a hunting dog that has hunted, a bee that has made honey, will not call to others to come and see. Nor does a person who has done a good turn. Instead, they go on to do another good turn, just as a vine that bore good fruit will go on to produce again in due season. You too should be like those who do good without any further thought. – Book 5: Meditation 6

In a sense, people are closest to us, insofar as we must do well by them and tolerate them. But insofar as some people stand in the way of my doing right, they become indifferent to me, just like the sun or the wind or a wild animal. True, they may hamper my activity somewhat, but they do not become real obstacles, for my motives and disposition can remove them or turn them around. For our intelligence can turn every obstacle around and turn it into something that helps us towards our guiding purpose. What blocked our effort can be made to work for it. What stood in our way can help us along the way. – Book 5: Meditation 20

People were born for one another. So either teach them, or learn to put up with them. – Book 8: Meditation 59

NINE RULES FOR DEALING WITH OTHERS

1. What is my relationship to others? We are made for one another. But in another sense, I was made to lead and protect them, like a ram with his flock or a bull with his herd. But on a higher level, think: “It is nature that orders the universe.” If so, then inferior things exist for the sake of the superior. And the superior things exist for the sake of one another.

2. How do other people behave at meals, in bed and so forth? Most of all think how they take their own beliefs for inevitabilities. And how vain they are when they do what they do!

3. If others do right, then don’t make difficulties. But if they do wrong, they obviously are acting unaware and in ignorance. No human soul wishes to be deprived of the truth or the ability to treat each person as they deserve. At any rate, they are hurt if they hear themselves called unfair, ungrateful, greedy – in a word, wrongdoers against their neighbors.

4. You also commit many wrongs. You’re the same as everyone else. If you do avoid certain wrongs, you still may be just as inclined to commit them. Maybe you hold back out of cowardice, or fear of unpopularity, or from some other low motive.

5. But you don’t even know if others are doing wrong. For a lot depends on circumstances. All told, you must learn a great deal before you are fit to pass judgment on someone else’s behavior.

6. When you get irritated or impatient, remember that human life is only a moment. In a little while we’ll all be dead and buried.

7. It isn’t people’s behavior that bothers us, for their actions stem from their inner compulsions. It’s our opinion that causes the trouble. So put an end to it. Make a decision to let go of your judgment as if it were a burden to you and your anger will be gone! How to do this? By realizing that no one else’s wrongs can bring shame upon you. For if shameful acts alone are bad, you too would be bound to commit many crimes, become a thief and heaven knows what else.

8. How much more trouble comes to us through our own grief and anger over these sorts of things than by the actual things that make us angry and upset.

9. A kindly attitude is invincible, if it is genuine. But it must not be an affected smile or mere play-acting. What can the most violent persons do to you, if you keep showing them kindness? Give gentle warnings when you can. Get close to them and teach them. Even right when they are raising a hand against you say, “No, child, we’re all made for something better. I’m not the one who’s being hurt. You’re only hurting yourself!” And show them gently, tactfully, on general principles, that this really is so – that even the bees do not act that way, or any animals that are naturally sociable. Say all this without sarcasm, not to humiliate them, but affectionately and without bitterness. And not as if you were lecturing or trying to impress them. Treat them as if they were alone, even if others are present. How much more trouble comes to us through our own grief and anger over these sorts of things than by the actual things that make us angry and upset.

Remember these nine rules, as if you had received them as a divine gift and begin at last to be human while you live. – Book 11: Meditation 18

When you have done good and someone else has benefited, why do you still have to seek a third satisfaction, as fools do, to pass for a benefactor or be paid in return? – Book 7: Meditation 73

FOR FURTHER READING

Essential Works of Stoicism: Zeno, Cleanthes, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius. Edited and with an introduction by Moses Hadas. New York: Bantam Books, 1961. (Includes the complete Meditations: “To Himself,” a revision of the George Long translation.)

Farquharson, A.S.L., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, His Life and His World. Oxford: Blackwell, 1951. (Still the leading scholarly treatment of Marcus Aurelius in English.)

Marc-Aurèle.Pensées. Texte établi et traduit par A.I. Trannoy. Préface d’Aimé Puech. Collection Guillaume Budé. Paris: Société d’Édition “Les Belles Lettres,” 1964. (Greek text with French translation and introduction.)

Birley, A.R. Marcus Aurelius. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966.

Rutherford, R.B. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: A Study. Oxford University Press, 1989.