Marcus Aurelius

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was a Stoic philosopher, and Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180; born Marcus Annius Catilius Severus, at marriage he took the name Marcus Annius Verus. When named Emperor, he was given the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and afterwards became known as the last of the "Five Good Emperors."

The Meditations

Writings of Aurelius as reminders to himself of ideas to bear in mind. There are many different translations of these, often with different nuances of interpretation (and sometimes different arrangements).

• Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill.
  • II, 1

• You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.
  • II, 5

• The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
  • II, 14

• This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole...
• Τούτων ἀεὶ μεμνῆσθαι, τίς ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις
  • II, 9

• A man should be upright, not kept upright.
  • III, 5

• Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
  • III, 7

• Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.
  • III, 10

• By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
  • IV, 3

• Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul
  • IV, 3

• The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
  • Variant: The universe is flux, life is opinion.
  • ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις.
  • IV, 3

• If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common. If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left undone is common. If this be so, law also is common; if this be so, we are citizens; if this be so, we are partakers in one constitution; if this be so, the Universe is a kind of Commonwealth.
  • IV, 4 (as translated by ASL Farquharson)

• Whatever happens at all happens as it should; you will find this true, if you watch narrowly.
  • IV, 10

• Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.
  • IV, 14 (trans. Meric Casaubon)
  • Variant: Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
  • τὸ χρεὼν ἐπήρτηται· ἕως ζῇς, ἕως ἔξεστιν, ἀγαθὸς γενοῦ.
    • IV, 17 (trans. George Long)

• How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
  • IV, 18

• Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.
  • IV, 20

• All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.
  • Πᾶν μοι συναρμόζει ὃ σοὶ εὐάρμοστόν ἐστιν, ὦ κόσμε· οὐδέν μοι πρόωρον οὐδὲ ὄψιμον ὃ σοὶ εὔκαιρον. πᾶν μοι καρπὸς ὃ φέρουσιν αἱ σαὶ ὧραι, ὦ φύσις· ἐκ σοῦ πάντα, ἐν σοὶ πάντα, εἰς σὲ πάντα. ἐκεῖνος μέν φησιν·
  • IV, 23

• "Let your occupations be few," says the sage, "if you would lead a tranquil life."
  • Ὀλίγα πρῆσσε, φησίν, εἰ μέλλεις εὐθυμήσειν
  • IV, 24

• Remember this— that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
  • IV, 32

• All is ephemeral - fame and the famous as well.
  • Πᾶν ἐφήμερον, καὶ τὸ μνημονεῦον καὶ τὸ μνημονευόμενον.
  • IV, 35

• Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.
  • IV, 38

• Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.
  • IV, 40

• Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
  • IV, 43

• Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man - yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.
  • IV, 48

• At dawn of day, when you dislike being called, have this thought ready: "I am called to man's labour; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?"
• Ὄρθρου, ὅταν δυσόκνως ἐξεγείρῃ, πρόχειρον ἔστω ὅτι ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπου ἔργον ἐγείρομαι· ἔτι οὖν δυσκολαίνω, εἰ πορεύομαι ἐπὶ τὸ ποιεῖν ὧν ἕνεκεν γέγονα καὶ ὧν χάριν προῆγμαι εἰς τὸν κόσμον; ἢ ἐπὶ τοῦτο κατεσκεύασμαι, ἵνα κατακείμενος ἐν στρωματίοις ἐμαυτὸν θάλπω;
  • V, 1 (as translated by ASL Farquharson)

• To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the bad should not do something of this kind.
  • Τὸ τὰ ἀδύνατα διώκειν μανικόν· ἀδύνατον δὲ τὸ τοὺς φαύλους μὴ τοιαῦτά τινα ποιεῖν.
  • V, 17

• Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
  • Οὐδὲν οὐδενὶ συμβαίνει ὃ οὐχὶ ἐκεῖνο πέφυκε φέρειν.
  • V, 18

• Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.
  • Ἔσω βλέπε· μηδενὸς πράγματος μήτε ἡ ἰδία ποιότης μήτε ἡ ἀξία παρατρεχέτω σε.
  • VI, 3

• Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.
  • Μή, εἴ τι αὐτῷ σοὶ δυσκαταπόνητον, τοῦτο ἀνθρώπῳ ἀδύνατον ὑπολαμβάνειν, ἀλλ εἴ τι ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατὸν καὶ οἰκεῖον, τοῦτο καὶ σεαυτῷ ἐφικτὸν νομίζειν.
  • VI, 19

• Take heed not to be transformed into a Caesar, not to be dipped in the purple dye, for it does happen. Keep yourself therefore, simple, good, pure, grave, unaffected, the friend of justice, religious, kind, affectionate, strong for your proper work. Wrestle to be the man philosophy wished to make you. Reverence the gods, save men. Life is brief; there is but one harvest of earthly existence, a holy disposition and neighborly acts.
  • Ὅρα μὴ ἀποκαισαρωθῇς, μὴ βαφῇς· γίνεται γάρ. τήρησον οὖν σεαυτὸν ἁπλοῦν, ἀγαθόν, ἀκέραιον, σεμνόν, ἄκομψον, τοῦ δικαίου φίλον, θεοσεβῆ, εὐμενῆ, φιλόστοργον, ἐρρωμένον πρὸς τὰ πρέποντα ἔργα. ἀγώνισαι, ἵνα τοιοῦτος συμμείνῃς, οἷόν σε ἠθέλησε ποιῆσαι φιλοσοφία. αἰδοῦ θεούς, σῷζε ἀνθρώπους. βραχὺς ὁ βίος· εἷς καρπὸς τῆς ἐπιγείου ζωῆς, διάθεσις ὁσία καὶ πράξεις κοινωνικαί.
  • VI, 30

• Adapt yourself to the environment in which your lot has been cast, and show true love to the fellow-mortals with whom destiny has surrounded you.
  • Οἷς συγκεκλήρωσαι πράγμασι, τούτοις συνάρμοζε σεαυτόν, καὶ οἷς συνείληχας ἀνθρώποις, τούτους φίλει, ἀλλ ἀληθινῶς.
  • VI, 39

• What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.
  • VI, 54

• All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been co-ordinated, and they combine to make up the same universe. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one god who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, and one reason.
  • VII, 9

• Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.
  • Ἐγγὺς μὲν ἡ σὴ περὶ πάντων λήθη, ἐγγὺς δὲ ἡ πάντων περὶ σοῦ λήθη.
  • VII, 21

• It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.
  • Ἴδιον ἀνθρώπου φιλεῖν καὶ τοὺς πταίοντας.
  • VII, 22

• Very little is needed to make a happy life.
  • ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι·
  • VII, 67

• You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.
  • Ὅτι οὐδὲν ἧττον τὰ αὐτὰ ποιήσουσι, κἂν σὺ διαρραγῇς.
  • VIII, 4

• To change your mind and to follow him who sets you right is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.
  • VIII, 16

• Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.
  • Πρόσεχε τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ ἢ τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ ἢ τῷ δόγματι ἢ τῷ σημαινομένῳ.
  • VIII, 22

• Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.
  • VIII, 51

• All men are made one for another: either then teach them better, or bear with them.
  • VIII, 56 (trans. Meric Casaubon)
  • Variant: Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.
    • VIII, 59 (trans. George Long)
  • Οἱ ἄνθρωποι γεγόνασιν ἀλλήλων ἕνεκεν· ἢ δίδασκε οὖν ἢ φέρε.

• He who fears death either fears to lose all sensation or fears new sensations. In reality, you will either feel nothing at all, and therefore nothing evil, or else, if you can feel any sensations, you will be a new creature, and so will not have ceased to have life.
  • VIII, 58

• Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
  • IX, 3

• A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.
  • Ἀδικεῖ πολλάκις ὁ μὴ ποιῶν τι, οὐ μόνον ὁ ποιῶν τι.
  • IX, 5

• Whatever may befall you, it was preordained for you from everlasting.
  • X, 5

• Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
  • Μηκέθ ὅλως περὶ τοῦ οἷόν τινα εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα διαλέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ εἶναι τοιοῦτον.
  • X, 16

• Know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
  • τί λοιπὸν ἢ ἀπολαύειν τοῦ ζῆν συνάπτοντα ἄλλο ἐπ ἄλλῳ ἀγαθόν, ὥστε μηδὲ τὸ βραχύτατον διάστημα ἀπολείπειν;
  • XII, 29

• Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and infinite other things. 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 several natures and individual limitations. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.
  • XII, 30