Meditations

Marcus Aurelius, written in Greek between AD 170 and 180. Translated by George Long (1862). Cited the modern way: book and section, so 2.1 is the first section of Book II.

• text: Standard Ebooks, CC0

• section numbers: Project Gutenberg 15877, the same Long translation with the numbering intact

• highlights: Wikiquote, CC BY-SA

• comments: Hypothesis public annotations on Project Gutenberg 2680, CC0

Most highlighted

The passages readers mark, most agreed first. 148 highlights and 2 comments over 12 books, 487 sections, 45350 words.

This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of a part it is of what kind of a whole; and that there is no one who hinders thee from always doing and saying the things which are according to the nature of which thou art a part.

2.9 · Wikiquote, jgmac1106

His secrets were not but very few and very rare, and these only about public matters; and he showed prudence and economy in the exhibition of the public spectacles and the construction of public buildings, his donations to the people, and in such things, for he was a man who looked to what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man’s acts.

1.16 · Wikiquote

For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.

2.1 · Wikiquote

Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part.

2.2 · Wikiquote

All that is from the gods is full of Providence.

2.3 · Wikiquote

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee.

2.5 · jgmac1106

Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.

2.7 · Wikiquote

But death certainly, and life, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, all these things equally happen to good men and bad, being things which make us neither better nor worse.

2.11 · Wikiquote

These two things then thou must bear in mind; the one, that all things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle, and that it makes no difference whether a man shall see the same things during a hundred years or two hundred, or an infinite time; and the second, that the longest liver and he who will die soonest lose just the same.

2.14 · Wikiquote

But do thou, I say, simply and freely choose the better, and hold to it.⁠—But that which is useful is the better.⁠—Well then, if it is useful to thee as a rational being, keep to it; but if it is only useful to thee as an animal, say so, and maintain thy judgement without arrogance: only take care that thou makest the inquiry by a sure method.

3.6 · Wikiquote

Throwing away then all things, hold to these only which are few; and besides bear in mind that every man lives only this present time, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or it is uncertain.

3.10 · Wikiquote

Let no act be done without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to the perfect principles of art.

4.2 · Wikiquote

Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, seashores, 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, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.

4.3 · Wikiquote

Many grains of frankincense on the same altar: one falls before, another falls after; but it makes no difference.

4.15 · Wikiquote

Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

4.17 · Wikiquote

How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only to what he does himself, that it may be just and pure; or as Agathon says, look not round at the depraved morals of others, but run straight along the line without deviating from it.

4.18 · Wikiquote

That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.

4.20 · Wikiquote

For the greatest part of what we say and do being unnecessary, if a man takes this away, he will have more leisure and less uneasiness.

4.24 · Wikiquote

Love the art, poor as it may be, which thou hast learned, and be content with it; and pass through the rest of life like one who has entrusted to the gods with his whole soul all that he has, making thyself neither the tyrant nor the slave of any man.

4.31 · Wikiquote

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.

4.40 · Wikiquote

Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.

4.41 · Wikiquote

Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?

5.1 · Wikiquote

How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility.

5.2 · Wikiquote

To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the bad should not do something of this kind.

5.17 · Wikiquote

Reverence that which is best in the universe; and this is that which makes use of all things and directs all things.

5.21 · Wikiquote