The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus |
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action anger Antoninus aught Augustan History Aurelius Avidius Cassius bear befall body breath Cassius character Chrysippus Commodus contemplate Coraës death deed Democritus destiny divine duty earth emperor Epictetus Epicurus evil existence faculty fame Faustina fear flesh Fronto Gataker Hadrian harm harmony Heaven Heraclitus impulse judgement justice let thy live look Lucius Verus man's Marcomanni Marcus mind ness never objects opinion pain philosophy Plato pleasure Plutarch praise present principle rational reason reflect remember Roman Sarmatians seems sins Socrates soul Stoic Stoicism thee thine things indifferent thou art thou canst thou hast thou shalt thou wilt thought thy nature thyself tion Trajan trouble true truth turn universal Nature Verus virtue vulg whole words Zeus ἂν γὰρ δὲ εἰ ἐν καὶ κατὰ κτέ μὲν ὅτι οὐ οὐκ οὖν πρὸς τὰ τὸ τοῦ τῶν
Popular passages
Page 221 - ... quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est. cedit item retro, de terra quod fuit ante, in terras, et quod missumst ex aetheris oris, 1000 id rursum caeli rellatum templa receptant.
Page 216 - Quemadmodum enim decem mensibus tenet nos maternus uterus et praeparat non sibi, sed illi loco, in quem videmur emitti iam idonei spiritum trahere et in aperto durare: sic per hoc spatium, quod ab infantia patet in senectutem, in alium maturescimus partum. Alia origo nos expectat, alius rerum status.
Page 223 - ... the quantity of milk which he squeezes from them; and he remarks that the creature whom they tend, and out of whom they squeeze the wealth, is of a less tractable and more insidious nature. Then, again, he observes that the great man is of necessity as ill-mannered and uneducated as any shepherd — for he has no leisure, and he is surrounded by a wall, which is his mountain-pen.
Page 83 - All that is best for thee, O Universe, is best also for me. Nothing, that comes in thy good time, to me comes early or late. To me, O Nature, all that thy seasons bear is fruit. From thee come all things, in thee they abide, and to thee they return. The poet cries, ' O city of Cecrops, land beloved ' ; and canst thou not say, ' O city of God, O land of love ' ? 3 Having seen the nature of the Universe we proceed to see the nature of Man.
Page 210 - He sat forward. She was saying something more than the words. "I conclude with this from Marcus Aurelius." She gave them the Latin as usual, and then translated: "Then depart at peace with all men, for he who bids thee go is at peace with thee." "Vale," she said and left before more than that could be said. He had at first promised wildly that he would sever himself from the women and from Triverton. He would see them no more and he would not come back. But he did neither. To refuse to meet with...
Page 60 - Let it be thy hourly care to do stoutly what thy hand findeth to do, as becomes a man and a Roman, with carefulness, unaffected dignity, humanity, freedom, and justice. Free thyself from the obsession of all other thoughts; for free thyself thou wilt, if thou but perform every action as though it were the last of thy life, without light-mindedness, without swerving through force of passion from the dictates of reason, without hypocrisy, without self-love, without chafing at destiny.
Page 149 - Strive not to comprehend in one view the nature and number of burdens that, belike, will fall to thy share. Rather, as each occasion arises in the present put this question to thyself: "Where lies the unbearable, unendurable part of this task?" Confession will put thee to the blush! Next recall to mind that neither past nor future can weigh thee down, only the present. And the present will shrink to littleness if thou but set it apart, assign it its boundaries, and then ask thy mind if it avail not...
Page 104 - Live with the gods. For that man lives with them indeed, who, all life long, lays bare his soul to Heaven, showing that it is a soul Well content with the dispensations of providence, and executing every wish of that godhead which Zeus has given man, to be his guardian and his guide — a fragment of Himself. And this godhead is the understanding and reason of each one of us.
Page 208 - The salvation of life is to contemplate every object in its entirety, and see what it is in essence, what is the formal element in it, and what the material; and to do the right, and speak the truth, in all sincerity of heart. What then is left, save to enjoy life, adding one good deed to another so that not the briefest interval is left bare of good?