Meditations

Quotes

Tolerate pain and feel few needs; work with my own hands and mind my own business; to be deaf to malicious gossip

Have no other perspective, even for a moment, than that of reason alone; to be always the same man, unchanged in sudden pain, in the loss of a child, in lingering sickness

The concept of life lived according to nature; an unaffected dignity; intuitive concern for his friends; tolerance both of ordinary people and of the emptily opinionated

This is the sort of thing which one should spend lavishly. (on studying and knowledge)

To tolerate pain and feel few needs; to work with my own hands and mind my own business; to be deaf to malicious gossip

Have no other perspective, even for a moment, than that of reason alone; to be always the same man, unchanged in sudden pain, in the loss of a child, in lingering sickness

From Sextus: Concept of life lived according to nature; an unaffected dignity; intuitive concern for his friends; tolerance both of ordinary people and of the emptily opinionated; an agreeable manner with all, so that the pleasure of his conversation was greater than any flattery

From Catulus: not to spurn a friend’s criticism, even if it may be an unreasonable complaint, but to try to restore his usual feelings

From Maximus: self-mastery, immune to any passing whim; good cheer in all circumstances, including illness; a nice balance of character, both gentle and dignified; an uncomplaining energy for what needs to be done

The trust he inspired in everyone that he meant what he said and was well-intentioned in all that he did; in nothing either hurried or hesitant, never downcast or cringing, or on the other hand angry or suspicious; a forgiving and truthful nature; undeviating rectitude as a path chosen rather than enforced; no one would ever have thought himself belittled by him, or presumed to consider himself superior to him; and a pleasant humour.

From my [adoptive] father: an immovable adherence to decisions made after full consideration; no vain taste for so-called honours; stamina and perseverance; focused and persistent in deliberation in council

Sensible care for his own body so that his own attention to himself left very little need for doctors, doses or applications; to resume instantly after attacks of migraine, fresh again and vigorous for his usual work

Nothing about him was harsh, relentless or impetuous and you would never say of him that he ‘broke out a sweat’: but everything was allotted its own time and thought, as by a man of leisure - his way was unhurried, organised, vigorous, consistent in all. He could regulate abstinence and enjoyment where many people are too weak-willed to abstain or enjoy too indulgently.

Strength of character - and endurance or sobriety as the case may be - signifies the man of full and indomitable spirit, as was shown by Maximus in his illness.

Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I shall meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, agressive. All this afflicted them through their ignorance of true good and evil. I have reflected that the nature of the offender himself is akin to my own - a sharing in the same mind, the same fragment of divinity. Therefore I cannot be harmed by any of them, as none will infect me with their wrong. Nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him. We were born for cooperation, so to work in opposition to one another is against nature: and anger or rejection is opposition.

Remember how long you have been putting this off, how many times you have been given a period of grace by the gods and not used it. There is a limit circumscribed to your time - if you do not use it to clear away your clouds, it will be gone and you will be gone

Perform each action as if it were the last of your life: freed, that is, from all lack of aim, from all passion-led deviation from the ordinance of reason, from pretence, from love of self, from dissatisfaction with what fate has dealt you

Self-harm, my soul, you are doing self-harm: and you will have no more opportunity for self-respect. Life for each of us is a mere moment, and this life of yours is nearly over.

Theophrastus says that offences of lust are graver than those of anger: because it is clearly some sort of pain and involuntary spasm which drives the angry man to abandon reason, whereas the lust-led offender has given in to pleasure and seems somehow more abandoned and less manly in his wrongdoing

How all things quickly vanish - especially those which allure us with pleasure, frighten us with pain, or enjoy the applause of vanity - how cheap they are, how contemptible, shoddy, perishable and dead

Nothing is more miserable than one who is always out and about, running round everything in circles

The soul of a man harms itself, first and foremost when it becomes a seperate growth, a sort of tumour on the universe: because to resent anything that happens is to seperate oneself in revolt from nature

Train yourself to think only those thoughts such that in answer to the sudden question ‘What is in your mind now?’ you could say with immediate frankness whatever it is, so your answer can give direct evidence that all your thoughts are straightforward and kindly

He has only his own work to bring fulfilment, and only his own fated allocation from the Whole to claim his constant attention