Category: Marcus Aurelius Meditations

To stir up a man to the contempt of death this among other things, is of good power and efficacy, that even they who esteemed pleasure to be happiness, and pain misery, did nevertheless many of them contemn death as much as any.

And can death be terrible to him, to whom that only seems good, which in the ordinary course of nature is seasonable?

To him, to whom, whether his actions be many or few, so they be all good, is all one; and who whether he behold the things of the world being always the same either for many years, or for few years only, is altogether indifferent?

O man! As a citizen thou hast lived, and conversed in this great city the world. Whether just for so many years, or no, what is it unto thee?

Thou hast lived (thou mayest be sure) as long as the laws and orders of the city required; which may be the common comfort of all.

Why then should it be grievous unto thee, if (not a tyrant, nor an unjust judge, but) the same nature that brought thee in, doth now send thee out of the world?

As if the praetor should fairly dismiss him from the stage, whom he had taken in to act a while.

Oh, but the play is not yet at an end, there are but three acts yet acted of it?

Thou hast well said: for in matter of life, three acts is the whole play.

Now to set a certain time to every man’s acting, belongs unto him only, who as first he was of thy composition, so is now the cause of thy dissolution.

As for thyself; thou hast to do with neither. Go thy ways then well pleased and contented: for so is He that dismisseth thee.

What is the present estate of my understanding? For herein lieth all indeed.

As for all other things, they are without the compass of mine own will: and if without the compass of my will, then are they as dead things unto me, and as it were mere smoke.

Herein doth consist happiness of life, for a man to know thoroughly the true nature of everything; what is the matter, and what is the form of it:

With all his heart and soul, ever to do that which is just, and to speak the truth.

What then remaineth but to enjoy thy life in a course and coherence of good actions, one upon another immediately succeeding, and never interrupted, though for never so little a while?

To them that ask thee, Where hast thou seen the Gods, or how knowest thou certainly that there be Gods, that thou art so devout in their worship?

I answer first of all, that even to the very eye, they are in some manner visible and apparent.

Secondly, neither have I ever seen mine own soul, and yet I respect and honour it.

So then for the Gods, by the daily experience that I have of their power and providence towards myself and others, I know certainly that they are, and therefore worship them.

Cast away from thee opinion, and thou art safe. And what is it that hinders thee from casting of it away?

When thou art grieved at anything, hast thou forgotten that all things happen according to the nature of the universe;

and that him only it concerns, who is in fault; and moreover, that what is now done, is that which from ever hath been done in the world, and will ever be done,

and is now done everywhere: how nearly all men are allied one to another by a kindred not of blood, nor of seed, but of the same mind.

Thou hast also forgotten that every man’s mind partakes of the Deity, and issueth from thence;

and that no man can properly call anything his own, no not his son, nor his body, nor his life; for that they all proceed from that One who is the giver of all things:

that all things are but opinion;

that no man lives properly, but that very instant of time which is now present.

And therefore that no man whensoever he dieth can properly be said to lose any more, than an instant of time.

These three things thou must have always in a readiness:

first concerning thine own actions, whether thou doest nothing either idly, or otherwise, than justice and equity do require:

and concerning those things that happen unto thee externally, that either they happen unto thee by chance, or by providence; of which two to accuse either, is equally against reason.

Secondly, what like unto our bodies are whilest yet rude and imperfect, until they be animated: and from their animation, until their expiration: of what things they are compounded, and into what things they shall be dissolved.

Thirdly, how vain all things will appear unto thee when, from on high as it were, looking down thou shalt contemplate all things upon earth, and the wonderful mutability, that they are subject unto:

considering withal, the infinite both greatness and variety of things aerial and things celestial that are round about it.

And that as often as thou shalt behold them, thou shalt still see the same: as the same things, so the same shortness of continuance of all those things.

And, behold, these be the things that we are so proud and puffed up for.

Remember that all is but opinion, and all opinion depends of the mind.

Take thine opinion away, and then as a ship that hath stricken in within the arms and mouth of the harbour, a present calm;

all things safe and steady: a bay, not capable of any storms and tempests: as the poet hath it.