Meditations
The classic from Marcus Aurelius.
The personal notes of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
This book has influenced many throughout history from students to statesmen. It's an inside look at a brilliant and thoughtful man working on living well.
The emperor and philosopher's thoughts are crucial to understand for any Stoic seeking to do their best in a complex world.
All chapters
12 chapters
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Book One
From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper.
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Book Two
Begin the morning by saying to yourself I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.
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Book Three
We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain whether the understanding will still continue sufficient for the comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human.
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Book Four
That which rules within, when it is according to nature, is so affected with respect to the events which happen, that it always easily adapts itself to that which is and is presented to it.
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Book Five
In he morning when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present- I am rising to the work of a human being.
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Book Six
The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it.
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Book Seven
What is badness? It is that which you have often seen.
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Book Eight
This reflection also tends to the removal of the desire of empty fame, that it is no longer in your power to have lived the whole of your life, or at least your life from your youth upwards, like a philosopher; but both to many others and to yourself it is plain that you art far from philosophy.
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Book Nine
He who acts unjustly acts impiously.
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Book Ten
Will you then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee? Will you never enjoy an affectionate and contented disposition?
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Book Eleven
These are the properties of the rational soul: it sees itself, analyses itself, and makes itself such as it chooses; the fruit which it bears itself enjoys- for the fruits of plants and that in animals which corresponds to fruits others enjoy- it obtains its own end, wherever the limit of life may be fixed.
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Book Twelve
All those things at which you wish to arrive by a circuitous road, you canst have now, if you dost not refuse them to yourself