Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library Classics)

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Then where is the harm to be found? In your capacity to see it. Stop doing that and everything will be fine. 4.39 This requires not merely passiveacquiescence in what happens, but active cooperation with the world, with fate and, above all,with other human beings. We were made, Marcus tells us over and over, not for ourselves but for others, and our nature is fundamentally unselfish. In our relationship with others we must work for their collective good, while treating them justly and fairly as possible. Externalthings are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them… And if it’s that you’re not doingsomethingyou think you should be, why not just do it? 8.47

But the man motivated by desire, who is mastered by pleasure, seems somehow more self-indulgent, less manly in his sins. 2.10 Dowhatnature demands. Get a move on–if you have it in you–and don’t worrywhetheranyone will give youcreditfor it. And don’t go expecting Plato’s republic; be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant. 9.29 If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind, of future and past–then you can spend the time you have left in tranquility. And in kindness. And at peace with the spirit within you. 12.3The mind without passion is a fortress. No place is more secure. Once we take refuge there we are safe forever. 8.48 It never ceases toamazeme: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own. 12.4 At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work–as a human being…I am going to what I was born for.” 5.1

What is divinedeservesour respect because it is good; what is human deserves our affection because it is like us. 2.13 Then what should you work for? Only this: proper understanding; unselfish action; truthful speech. A resolve to accept whatever happens as necessary and familiar, flowing like water from that same source and spring. 4.33Forget the future. When and if it comes, you’ll have the same resources to draw on–the same logos. 7.8 It’s time you realize that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet. 12.19 Our duty is to exercise stringent control over the faculty of perception, with the aim of protecting our mind from error.