updated 11h ago
Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library)
- If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment— If you can embrace this without fear or expectation—can find fulfillment in what you’re doing now, as Nature intended, and in superhuman
from Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
RP added 6mo ago
Now they see you as a beast, a monkey. But in a week they’ll think you’re a god—if you rediscover your beliefs and honor the logos.
from Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
RP added 6mo ago
Theophrastus is right, and philosophically sound, to say that the sin committed out of pleasure deserves a harsher rebuke than the one committed out of pain. The angry man is more like a victim of wrongdoing, provoked by pain to anger. The other man rushes into wrongdoing on his own, moved to action by desire.
from Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
Grisha Samus added 6mo ago
Theophrastus says that the ones committed out of desire are worse than the ones committed out of anger: which is good philosophy.
from Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
Abhishek Sivaraman added 4mo ago
You take things you don’t control and define them as “good” or “bad.” And so of course when the “bad” things happen, or the “good” ones don’t, you blame the gods and feel hatred for the people responsible—or those you decide to make responsible. Much of our bad behavior stems from trying to apply those criteria. If we limited “good” and “bad” to ou
... See morefrom Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
Glenn Goodrich added 4mo ago
You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.
from Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
Abhishek Sivaraman added 4mo ago
- When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the
from Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
Abhishek Sivaraman added 4mo ago
Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions
... See morefrom Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
Grisha Samus added 6mo ago
pain. The angry man is more like a victim of wrongdoing, provoked by pain to anger. The other man rushes into wrongdoing on his own, moved to action by desire.
from Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) by Aurelius, Marcus
Abhishek Sivaraman added 4mo ago