Once upon a time, there was a baby boy named Marcus Aurelius who was born in Rome in the year 121 AD. His father died when young Marcus was but 3 years old. He was adopted by his Uncle, Antoninus. Later in life, Marcus became the Roman Emperor. He fought invading hordes of Germanic armies, and he held his Empire together during times of great famine and plague. Even though he ruled an empire, he also loved to think and ponder about life. He loved to think about the deeper questions, and it just so happened that he wrote down these questions on paper. The book I have in my hand is the writings of this person that died over 1800 years ago. Marcus never intended to publish these meditations; they were simply for himself to reflect on the deeper questions of life. And now we have his thoughts that we can read for ourselves. What a treat!
Here’s some of my favorite writings so far:
“Nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him. We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work in opposition to one another is against nature.”
“Every hour of the day give vigorous attention…to the performance of the task in hand with precise analysis, with unaffected dignity, with human sympathy, with dispassionate justice – and to vacating your mind from all its other thoughts. And you will achieve this vacation if you perform each action as if it were the last of your life: freed, that is, from all lack of aim, from all passion-led deviation from the ordinance of reason, from pretense from love of self, from dissatisfaction with what fate has dealt you.” page 11
“You may leave this life at any moment. : have this possibility in your mind in all that you do or say or think. Now departure from the world of men is nothing to fear, if gods exist: because they would not involve you in any harm. If they do not exist, or if they have no care for humankind, then what is life to me in a world devoid of gods, or devoid of providence? But they do exist, and they do care for humankind: and they have put it absolutely in man’s power to avoid falling into the true kinds of harm.” page 13
“No one can lose the past or the future – how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?”
“Alexander, Pompey, Julius Caesar annihilated whole cities time after time, and slaughtered tens of thousands of horse and foot in the field of battle, and yet the moment came for them too to depart this life. ” page 18
“Train yourself to think only those thoughts such that in answer to the sudden question ‘What is in your mind now?’ page 18
“Let the god that is within you be the champion of the being you are – a male, mature in years, a statesman, a Roman, a ruler” – 19
“No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind, especially if he can dip into thoughts there which put him immediate and complete ease: and by ease, I simply mean a well-ordered life. So constantly give yourself this retreat and renew yourself.” – 23
“Things cannot touch the mind: they are external and inert; anxieties can only come from your internal judgement.” – 24
“Remove the judgement, and you have removed the thought ‘I am hurt’: remove the thought ‘I am hurt’, and the hurt itself is removed.” – 25
Dan's Book Club 