A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for. He was made to show goodwill to his kind, to rise above the promptings of his senses, to distinguish appearances from realities, and to pursue the study of universal Nature and her works.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (8.26)
Everything – a horse, a vine – is created for some duty. This is nothing to wonder at: even the sun-god himself will tell you, ‘There is a work that I am here to do,’ and so will the other sky-dwellers. For what task, then, were you yourself created? For pleasure? Can such a thought be tolerated?
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (8.19)
Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (7.27)
In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, and his fame doubtful. In short, all that is of the body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapours; life, a warfare, a brief sojourning in an alien land; and after repute, oblivion.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (2.17)
Principles can only lose their vitality when the first impressions from which they derive have sunk into extinction; and it is for you to keep fanning these continually into new flame… You have only to see things once more in the light of your first and earlier vision, and life begins anew.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (7.2)
How many whose praises used to be sung so loudly are now relegated to oblivion; and how many of the singers themselves have long since passed from our sight!
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (7.6)
In the constitution of a rational being, I find no virtue implanted for the combating of justice, but I do find self-control implanted for the combating of pleasure.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (8.39)
All Compositions of Matter fly off apace to the common stock and Receptacle: Spirits are quickly swallow’d up in the Soul of the Universe, and so is Memory and Fame in the Gulph of Time.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (7.10)
The above comes from this 1726 translation of Meditations…
The “Soul of the Universe” and the “Gulph of Time” are maybe more evocative than the more recent version from Gregory Hays:
All substance is soon absorbed into nature, all that animates it soon restored to the logos, all trace of them both soon covered over by time.
Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle is the Way and founder of The Daily Stoic, talks about his personal introduction to Stoicism.
Drawing on his favourite verses from Meditations, he shows the commonsense, its real-world application of Stoicism. It’s not for “turtle-necked professors”, it’s for the man in the street.
If you’re curious, this is a great place to start…
In talk, mark carefully what is being said, and when action is afoot, what is being done. In the latter case, look at once to see what is purposed; and in the other, make certain what is meant.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (7.4)