Meditations
Private notes a Roman emperor wrote to himself on duty, mortality and keeping his mind clear.
Contents
- Book 1From my grandfather Verus [I learned] good morals and the government of my temper.17 passages
- Book 2Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful…17 passages
- Book 3We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but…16 passages
- Book 4That which rules within, when it is according to nature, is so affected with respect to the events which…51 passages
- Book 5In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present,—I am rising to the work of a human…36 passages
- Book 6The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the reason which governs it has in itself no…59 passages
- Book 7What is badness? It is that which thou hast often seen. And on the occasion of everything which happens keep…75 passages
- Book 8This reflection also tends to the removal of the desire of empty fame, that it is no longer in thy power to…61 passages
- Book 9He who acts unjustly acts impiously. For since the universal nature has made rational animals for the sake of…42 passages
- Book 10Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which…38 passages
- Book 11These are the properties of the rational soul: it sees itself, analyzes itself, and makes itself such as it…39 passages
- Book 12All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road thou canst have now, if thou dost not…36 passages
Text: George Long’s translation, from Project Gutenberg. Public domain. C. R. Haines’s translation (1916), from Wikisource. Public domain in the US.