Genesis C.

Aguilar
III-6, AB/BSE Literature

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Annius Catilius Severus

( birth to marriage)
Marcus Annius Verus
(marriage to adoption)

Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar

(as imperial heir)
Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Augustus
(as emperor)

Born: April 26 121 March 17 180 AD

Roman Emperor from 161 to 180
The last of the Five Good Emperors
( Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and
Marcus Aurelius)
One of the most important Stoic philosophers
Philosopher King

Meditations
Ta eis heauton,
literally "[that which is] to himself")
Thoughts for Myself
personal writings
form of quotations varying in length
from one sentence to long paragraphs
12 books of the Meditations
a source for guidance and self-improvement

STOICS
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in
Athens by the early 3rd century BC.
The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from
errors in judgment, and the active relationship between
cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief
that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that
is in accord with nature.
Because of this, the Stoics presented their philosophy as a
way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an
individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how
that person behaved.

The Stoics taught that god

is the universe and is
all-good, all-beneficent,
and all-knowing.
This god of the Stoics can
be called Nature,
Providence, or Reason.

Book I

DEBTS AND LESSONS

I. 1. MY GRANDFATHER VERUS Character and self-control.

I. 2. MY FATHER (FROM MY OWN MEMORIES AND HIS REPUTATIONf) Integrity
and manliness.
I. 3. MY MOTHER Her reverence for the divine, her generosity, her inability not only
to do wrong but even to conceive of doing it. And the simple way she livednot in
the least like the rich.
I. 5. MY FIRST TEACHER Not to support this side or that in chariot-racing, this fighter
or that in the games. To put up with discomfort and not make demands. To do my
own work, mind my own business, and have no time for slanderers.
I. 16. MY ADOPTED FATHER Compassion. Unwavering adherence to decisions,
once hed reached them. Indifference to superficial honors. Hard work.
Persistence.
I. 17. THE GODS That I had good grandparents, a good mother and father, a good
sister, good teachers, good servants, relatives, friends almost without exception.
And that I never lost control of myself with any of them, although I had it in me to
do that, and I might have, easily. But thanks to the gods, I was never put in that
position, and so escaped the test.

Book 2

ON THE RIVER GRAN, AMONG THE QUADI

II. 1. 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 ownnot of the same
blood or birth, but the same mind, and
possessing a share of the divine.
II. 17 Of the life of man the duration is but a point.

Book 3

IN CARNUNTUM
III. 4. As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself
constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home
and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the
approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes
has no value for him.
III. 7. Never regard something as doing you good if it makes you betray
a trust or lose your sense of shame or makes you show hatred,
suspicion, ill-will or hypocrisy or a desire for things best done behind
closed doors.

Book 4

IV. 7. Let opinion be taken away, and no man will think himself
wronged. If no man shall think himself wronged, then is there no
more any such thing as wrong.
IV. 17. Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years.
Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power,
be good.
IV. 50. Do not then consider life a thing of any value. For look at
the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is
before thee, another boundless space. In this infinity then what
is the difference between him who lives three days and him who
lives three generations?

Book 5
V. 8. Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the
beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both of them
together: your own existence and the things that happen to you.
V. 9. Not to feel exasperated or defeated or despondent because your
days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up
when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a humanhowever
imperfectlyand fully embrace the pursuit you've embarked on.
V. 33. Soon you'll be ashes or bones. A mere name at mostand even
that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty,
stale, trivial.

Book 6

VI. 2. Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesnt matter.
Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. Dying . . . or
busy with other assignments. Because dying, too, is one of our
assignments in life There as well: to do what needs doing."
VI. 29. Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body
still perseveres.
VI. 51. Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say
or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to
you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.

BOOK 7

VII.1. Evil: the same old thing. No matter what happens, keep this in
mind: Its the same old thing, from one end of the world to the other.
It fills the history books, ancient and modern, and the cities, and the
houses too. Nothing new at all. Familiar, transient.
VII. 55. Dont pay attention to other peoples minds. Look straight
ahead, where nature is leading younature in general, through the
things that happen to you; and your own nature, through your own
actions.
VII. 69. Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without
frenzy, or sloth, or pretense.

BOOK 8

VIII. 12. When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning,
remember that your defining characteristicwhat defines a human
beingis to work with others. Even animals know how to sleep. And
its the characteristic activity thats the more natural onemore
innate and more satisfying.
VIII. 16. Remember that to change your mind and to accept correction
are free acts too. The action is yours, based o your own will, your
own decisionand your own mind.
VIII. 43. People find pleasure in different ways. I find it in keeping my
mind clear. In not turning away from people or the things that
happen to them. In accepting and welcoming everything I see. In
treating each thing as it deserves.

BOOK 9, 10, 11

IX. 6. Objective judgment, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now,
at this very moment. Willing acceptancenow, at this very momentof
all external events. Thats all you need.
X. 2. Focus on what nature demands, as if you were governed by that
alone. Then do that, and accept it, unless your nature as a living being
would be degraded by it. Then focus on what that nature demands, and
accept that toounless your nature as a rational being would be
degraded by it. And, of course, rational also implies civic. Follow
these guidelines and dont waste time on anything else.
XI. 2. Focus on what nature demands, as if you were governed by that
alone. Then do that, and accept it, unless your nature as a living being
would be degraded by it. Then focus on what that nature demands, and
accept that toounless your nature as a rational being would be
degraded by it. And, of course, rational also implies civic. Follow
these guidelines and dont waste time on anything else. Because anger,
too, is weakness, as much as breaking down and giving up the
struggle. Both are deserters: the man who breaks and runs, and the
one who lets himself be alienated from his fellow humans.

BOOK 12

1. Everything youre trying to reachby taking the long way roundyou

could have right now, this moment. If youd only stop thwarting your
own attempts. If youd only let go of the past, entrust the future to
Providence, and guide the present toward reverence and justice.
Reverence: so youll accept what youre allotted. Nature intended it for
you, and you for it.
Justice: so that youll speak the truth, frankly and without evasions, and
act as you shouldand as other people deserve.
Dont let anything deter you: other peoples misbehavior, your own
misperceptions, What People Will Say, or the feelings of the body that
covers you (let the affected part take care of those). And if, when its
time to depart, you shunt everything aside except your mind and the
divinity within . . . if it isnt ceasing to live that youre afraid of but never
beginning to live properly . . . then youll be worthy of the world that
made you.
No longer an alien in your own land.
No longer shocked by everyday eventsas if they were unheard-of
aberrations.
No longer at the mercy of this, or that.

Topoi
Desires (orexeis) and aversions (ekkliseis)
Impulse to act (hormas) and not to act (aphormas)
Freedom from deception, hasty judgement, and
anything else related to assents (sunkatatheseis)

"You have the power to strip away

many superfluous troubles located
wholly in your judgement, and to
possess a large room for yourself
embracing in thought the whole
cosmos, to consider everlasting
time, to think of the rapid change
in the parts of each thing, of how
short it is from birth until
dissolution, and how the void before
birth and that after dissolution are
equally infinite."

The End