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Wikipedia Summary for Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ə-REE-lee-əs; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was a Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors (a term coined some 13 centuries later by Niccolò Machiavelli), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana (27 BC to 180 AD), an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.
Marcus was born during the reign of Hadrian to the emperor's nephew, the praetor Marcus Annius Verus, and the heiress Domitia Calvilla. His father died when he was three, and his mother and grandfather raised Marcus. After Hadrian's adoptive son, Aelius Caesar, died in 138, the emperor adopted Marcus' uncle Antoninus Pius as his new heir. In turn, Antoninus adopted Marcus and Lucius, the son of Aelius. Hadrian died that year and Antoninus became emperor. Now heir to the throne, Marcus studied Greek and Latin under tutors such as Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto. He married Antoninus' daughter Faustina in 145.
After Antoninus died in 161, Marcus acceded to the throne alongside his adoptive brother, who reigned under the name Lucius Verus. Under Marcus' rule, the Roman Empire witnessed heavy military conflict. In the East, the Romans fought successfully with a revitalized Parthian Empire and the rebel Kingdom of Armenia. Marcus defeated the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatian Iazyges in the Marcomannic Wars; however, these and other Germanic peoples began to represent a troubling reality for the Empire. He modified the silver purity of the Roman currency, the denarius. The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire appears to have increased during Marcus' reign, but his involvement in this is unknown. The Antonine Plague broke out in 165 or 166 and devastated the population of the Roman Empire, causing the deaths of five to ten million people. Lucius Verus may have died from the plague in 169.
Unlike some of his predecessors, Marcus chose not to adopt an heir. His children included Lucilla, who married Lucius, and Commodus, whose succession after Marcus has been a subject of debate among both contemporary and modern historians. The Column and Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius still stand in Rome, where they were erected in celebration of his military victories. Meditations, the writings of "the philosopher" – as contemporary biographers called Marcus, are a significant source of the modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy. They have been praised by fellow writers, philosophers, monarchs, and politicians centuries after his death.
Every man is worth just as much as the things he busies himself with.
A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not always he that has done something.
The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
All is temporary and ephemeral--fame and the famous, as well.
Everything is fitting for me, my universe, which fits thy purpose. Nothing in its good time is too early or too late for me; everything is fruit for me which thy seasons, Nature, bear; from thee, in thee, to thee, are all things.
When thou art above measure angry, be think thee how momentary is man's life.
Submit to the fate of your own free will.
That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees.
Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe.
Longer Version:
Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe. .. We should not say 'I am an Athenian' or 'I am a Roman' but 'I am a citizen of the Universe.
You wear a watch to keep on schedule. You buy books on time management. And complain that you're so busy you just don't have enough time in the day.
Don't let your reflection on the whole sweep of life crush you. Don't fill your mind with all the bad things that might still happen. Stay focused on the present situation and ask yourself why it's so unbearable and can't be survived.
There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude: confidence in yourself.
But that which is useful is the better.
Can anything that is useful be accomplished without change?
The stream of tendency in which all things seek to fulfill the law of their being.
Above, below, all around are the movements of the elements. But the motion of virtue is in none of these: it is something more divine, and advancing by a way hardly observed it goes happily on its road.
This is the mark of a perfect character -- to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.
Truth and ceremony are two things.
All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in circle.
Consider frequently the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For things are somehow implicated with one another, and all in a way friendly to one another.
Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, 'I have been harmed.' Take away the complaint, 'I have been harmed,' and the harm is taken away.
Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear?
There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.
When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic-what defines a human being-is to work with others.
Light may earth's crumbling sand be laid on thee, that dogs may dig thy bones up easily.
Give full attention and devotion to each act.
Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.
The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.
All is ephemeral -- fame and the famous as well.
When a guide meets up with someone who is lost, ordinarily his reaction is to direct him on the right path, not mock or malign him, then turn on his heel and walk away. As for you, lead someone to the truth and you will find that he can follow.
All that happens is as habitual and familiar as roses in spring and fruit in the summer. True too of disease, death, defamation, and conspiracy--and all that delights or gives pain to fools.
Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.
Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.
A little time, and thou shalt close thy eyes; and him who has attended thee to thy grave, another soon will lament.
The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now molds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else.
Longer Version:
The universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything which is within her which appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter, and her own art.
If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, 'I awake to do the work of a man.'
The passing minute is every man's equal possession but what has once gone by is not ours.
How good it is, when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this the dead body of a bird or pig.
Longer Version:
How good it is when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this is the dead body of a bird or pig; and again, that the Falernian wine is the mere juice of grapes, and your purple edged robe simply the hair of a sheep soaked in shell-fish blood!
And in sexual intercourse that it is no more than the friction of a membrane and a spurt of mucus ejected.
How good these perceptions are at getting to the heart of the real thing and penetrating through it, so you can see it for what it is!
This should be your practice throughout all your life: when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.
Vanity is the greatest seducer of reason: when you are most convinced that your work is important, that is when you are most under its spell.
It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.
Once you have done a man a service, what more reward would you have? Is it not enough to have obeyed the laws of your own nature, without expecting to be paid for it?
Soon you will have forgotten all things: soon all things will have forgotten you.
When you have done a good deed that another has had the benefit of, why do you need a third reward-as fools do-praise for having done well or looking for a favor in return.
Remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment.
Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to.
Everything in any way beautiful has its beauty of itself, inherent and self-sufficient: praise is no part of it.
Time is a kind of river, an irresistible flood sweeping up men and events and carrying them headlong, one after the other, to the great sea of being.
All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.
All things are in the act of change; thou thyself in ceaseless transformation and partial decay, and the whole universe with thee.
Embellish the soul with simplicity, with prudence, and everything which is neither virtuous nor vicious. Love all men. Walk according to God; for, as a poet hath said, his laws govern all.
If man reflects on the changes and transformations which follow one another like wave after wave and their rapidity, he will despise everything which is perishable.
The ruling power within, when it is in its natural state, is so related to outer circumstances that it easily changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do.
Not to busy myself about vain things, and not easily to believe those things, which are commonly spoken.
The sole thing of which any man can be deprived is the present; since this is all he owns, and nobody can lose what is not his.
When pain is unbearable it destroys us; when it does not it is bearable.
To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief.
Death -- a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.
To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.
How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.
Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature?
We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one's back is counterproductive.
This is enough. Do not add, And why were such things made in the world?
Change your attitude to the things that bother you and you will be aware of them.
Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before.
Put from you the belief that 'I have been wronged,' and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.
Cinna wishes to seem poor, and is poor.
Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and ay, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?'
All those events in history were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.
Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.
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?
How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long been dead.
I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.
The healthy eye ought to see all visible things and not to say, I wish for green things; for this is the condition of a diseased eye.
From my great-grandfather: not to have attended schools for the public; to have had good teachers at home, and to realize that this is the sort of thing on which one should spend lavishly.
It were well to die if there be gods, and sad to live if there be none.
Live each day as if it be your last.
Casting aside other things, hold to the precious few; and besides bear in mind that every man lives only the present, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or is uncertain.
The soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then, with a continuous series of such thoughts as these -- that where a man can live, there -- if he will -- he can also live well.
No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.
Love the people with whom fate brings you together.
Don't let your imagination to be crushed by life as a whole. Don't try to pictures everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand. ...Then remind yourself that past and present have no power over you. Only the present.
Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable
to hold out against even this.