The Meditations: An Emperor’s Guide to Mastery
by Marcus Aurelius
(a new rendering by Sam Torode)
Foreword
- Stoicism doesn’t mean repressing emotion and shunning pleasure, but focusing on what is in our power and letting go of everything we can’t control.
Book 1
- Busyness is no excuse for neglecting our duties to family, friends, and community.
Book 2
- No one can hurt you but yourself, for no one else can make you forsake the good and embrace the bad.
- Don’t worry about what others think. Mind what you think. Watch the movements of your mind, and focus your thoughts on something worthy.
- Few things are worse than nosy people who try to conjecture what’s in their neighbors’ minds, instead of tending to their own.
- When we die, we don’t “lose” the past or future – we never owned them.
- When you do anything insincere, halfhearted, or thoughtless, you harm yourself. Even the smallest action should be performed with a goal in mind.
Book 3
- Direct your thoughts to a useful end. When you dissipate your mental energy on things you can’t control, you lose the opportunity to accomplish something yourself.
- Be a person of few words and a few projects, not busy and scattered.
- Remember that you live in the present moment – a single, indivisible point in time. The past is gone and the future is unknowable. Brief is the moment in which you live; small is the plot of earth beneath your feet.
- With each person you meet, remind yourself that you share a common humanity. You belong to the same family.
- Expect nothing, fear nothing, speak truly, and act heroically. Nothing can stop you.
- Be content in your circumstances; preserve the spark of divinity within; follow the light of reason; live simply and serenely; and be happy with your lot in life, and ready to depart when you’re called.
Book 4
- It’s within your power to find solace at any time, by retreating into yourself. When your thoughts are orderly and tranquil, there’s no place more peaceful than your own soul.
- Nothing touches the soul; it can’t be harmed by anything external. When you are upset, it is your own opinion that upsets you.
- To change your experience, change your opinion. Stop telling yourself that you’re a victim and the pain goes away.
- Think in accordance with reason. If your opinions cause you distress, change your opinions.
- In the race of life, stay in your lane and focus on the finish line; don’t gawk a the missteps of others.
- Much of what we do is unnecessary, unfocused, and unhelpful. How much time can you gain by pruning these activities?
- Focus on what’s important. Give great attention to great matters, and little attention to little matters.
- Difficult circumstances can befall anyone – what’s telling is how a person responds to their circumstances.
- Life is not disjointed but logical. Everything that happens is the consequence of what came before.
- You are free if you are neither crushed by the present or afraid of the future. Storms befall everyone; but not everyone can stand firm against them.
Book 5
- You cannot be unhappy when you have another opportunity to do what you were born to do.
- If you truly love yourself, love your nature and vocation. Those who love their work don’t even think of stopping.
- You can develop greater sincerity, generosity, persistence, strength, and contentment in all circumstances.
- It’s better to be honest and straightforward than mere witty and clever.
- Fate prescribes events, but it is up to you accept and act upon that prescription.
- It is always within your power to think and act in harmony with your own nature, and with the nature of the universe.
- Don’t pin your happiness on anything that isn’t part of your rightful inheritance as a human being.
- No matter what comes your way, you can find someone who has gone through the same experience and stood strong, emerging spiritually unharmed.
- Other people may try to impede your actions, but they can’t impede your thoughts and disposition.
- When you come upon a stumbling block, use it as a stepping stone.
- Instead of boasting or moaning, rest content knowing that you are a small part of the universe, and treasure the moment in eternity you have been given.
- If someone does you wrong, that’s their problem – it harms their character, not yours. Focus on your own thoughts and actions.
- Anger does you no good. And so it is no use to be angry.
- Nothing short of death can prevent you from thinking, feeling, and acting as you choose.
Book 6
- Taking an insult or injury and transforming it into a means of becoming a better person is the only true vengeance.
- To not be fooled into treasuring pretty things, take praised or prise things and strip them of the words by which they’re exalted.
- All things find fulfillment in actualizing their nature. Pinning your happiness on anything else makes you a slave to desire.
- When you don’t have what you want, you’re jealous of those who have it; when you have what you want, you’re suspicious of those who might take it away.
- In every arena, give your best effort, respect the competition, and whatever the outcome, walk away in peace.
- Seek the truth – the truth never hurt anyone. Continuing in error is what causes injury.
- When something scares you, it is your beliefs that scare you. Release your beliefs and the fear dissolves.
- Exert your efforts within your sphere of power, and be indifferent to everything else.
- List the good qualities of people you know – nothing delights us like virtue embodied in a particular person.
- Use persuasion and be peaceful and patient when others block your path. Whether or not you reach your goal, you’ll gain a deeper and stronger character.
- When others speak, imagine yourself in their shoes and see things from their perspective.
- Things themselves don’t have the power to determine our opinions about them – we form opinions.
Book 7
- Why entertain worries and fears when your thoughts, opinions, and interpretations are all in your power to choose?
- Don’t be too proud to ask for help – people are social beings who need each other.
- Don’t worry about the future – by doing your best today, you’ll build the strength and resources to handle whatever tomorrow brings.
- You are not injured by anything unless you view the event as a terrible, unfair, unfortunate event inflicted upon you.
- Nothing would ever happen without change. It is the nature of the universe, so embrace it.
- When someone wrongs you, identify the mistaken ideas that motivated their behavior.
- Be grateful for the things you do have, and imagine how desirable they would seem if you didn’t already have them.
- Those who strive for fame are competing to build the largest pile of sand; tomorrow, the wind comes and blows it all away.
- Up close, we see the chaos of animals and soldiers; from far away, we see the orderliness of herds and armies.
- It is always within your power to accept your present circumstances, be kind to those around you, and to cultivate true and useful thoughts.
- When “misfortune” befalls you, think of others who have experienced the same thing. Can you turn this obstacle into a stepping stone?
- Don’t treat inhumane people the way they treat others, lest you become inhumane.
- It is ridiculous to despite others for their faults and failings, while indulging and excusing your own.
Book 8
- Happiness is a byproduct of thinking and acting in ways that are just, generous, resolute, purposeful, and free.
- You can be angry until your head explodes, but it wouldn’t change how other people behave.
- We need to repent not just for the bad things we do, but the good things that we don’t do.
- If you know a person’s ruling principles and motivations, nothing they do will surprise you.
- Welcome correction, and change your thinking to fit reason. Don’t twist reason to fit your opinions.
- If something undesirable happens, don’t get angry. All your thoughts and actions should be directed to a purpose.
- Be grateful to the universe, from which you can never be separated, and to the human family, with which you can always be reunited.
- You can’t hurt in the past or future, only the present. Limit your pain to that moment and it will be bearable.
- What does it matter to you if someone a thousand years from now utters your name, or has an opinion about you?
- If your own thoughts are causing you pain, there is no one but you who keeps you from changing them.
- A mind ruled by reason is a fortress. Take refuge within its walls and you’ll be safe and free.
Book 9
- Each transition of your self entailed the death of what came before. Change is nothing to fear and resist.
- If your trouble is caused by your opinion of things, change the story you tell yourself.
- It’s in your power to act now, so get moving. Don’t wait for the perfect time, perfect environment, or anyone to cheer you.
- You ask for the gods to deliver you from what you fear. But why not pray for the strength to let go of your desires and fears?
- It’s unreasonable to demand a world with no brazen wrongdoers. You being upset will not bring about utopia.
- Someone will go astray if they’ve never been taught to follow the right way. It’s your mistake to expect an ignorant person to act like a knowledgeable one.
Book 10
- Rationality is the quality of seeing past appearances to discern the true nature of things.
- Equanimity means the calm acceptance of all that exists and all that happens.
- Magnanimity means greatness of spirit, unmoved by the lure of pleasure, the lust for fame, and the fear of death.
- Stop wasting energy on procrastination. Your job is to see what needs to be done and then do it, proceeding forward without looking back.
- As you improve your mind and disposition, your surroundings become more interesting, beautiful, and inspiring – no matter where you are.
- Focus on improving yourself, for others are outside of your control.
- Courageously facing challenges and patiently enduring suffering are ways of improving your character and disposition.
- Healthy eyes enjoy seeing all colors; healthy ears hear all sounds; a healthy nose takes in all scents.
- A healthy mind perceives all things, accepts all things, and makes use of all things.
Book 11
- Euripides said “Why be angry at the world? As if the world cares!”
- Remain calm in the face of those who try to hinder or harm you. If you become angry and hateful, you focus on the obstacle and lose sight of your goal.
- There’s never a reason to announce beforehand that you’re going to be fair or generous. Do it, and the action will speak for itself.
- Far better to have an honest opponent than a false friend.
- Speak what you really think, not what you think people want to hear.
- Epictetus said “No one can rob you of your free will.”
Book 12
- Freedom consists of detaching from all those things that are not you, and letting them be whatever they will be.
- You wonder how most people value their own lives above others, yet value other’s opinions of them over their own self-opinions.
- Internalize your principles so that they become part of you.
- Remember that everything is opinion, and your opinion is within your power.