Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 4
Bonus:
Summary: You're going to die. Live according to nature.
Commentary:
1. Your soul can handle any challenge, and will only get stronger.
2. Don't just do stuff randomly.
3. People try to go to far away, isolated places to rest, but you can go inside yourself whenever you want. It's the perfect way to renew yourself, do it often.
Always have key thoughts and mottos ready to remember. When you see something bad, remember that we all exist to help each other. Either there is a plan, or everything is "unguided atoms."
Fame is fickle, chaos is eternal.
4. We all have minds, come from the same Earth, and the virtues are rational, so we should all follow common laws to encourage us to follow virtue.
5. If Birth isn't bad, than neither is Death. It's just a reversal of the same process.
6. Fate matches certain people to certain actions.
7. Don't think about your pain and your injury is half gone.
8. If something doesn't harm you, it doesn't harm your life, and isn't a problem.
9. What is, is.
10. What is supposed to happen, happens.
11. Don't think what the person who insults you thinks. Think the truth.
12. Always be ready to do the right thing, and to change your mind.
13. If you can think, why wouldn't you?
14. You are part of the universe. You will disappear into it in time.
15. We all die. The order doesn't matter.
16. If you use reason, it will take only a week or two to seem like a god to people who don't.
17. Don't live like you'll be ten thousand years. Live to do good now.
18. Worry about your actions, not how other people will talk about them.
19. Even if you're famous, you're still dead. Also, all the people who remember your famousness will die too.
20. Anything beautiful is beautiful for it's own sake.
21. Souls dissipate like bodies?
22. Keep on the straight and narrow. Justice!
23. Be in tune with nature. Everything is in its time and place.
24. If you want to be calm, focus on doing the things you need to do, not extras.
25. Try living the life of a good man and see how it suits you.
26. You have seen how a bad life goes. Avoid complexity, keep simplicity.
27. If there is order in you, there must be order in the universe.
28. Think about all the different kinds of deformed character.
29. Not learning about the world is like making yourself a foreigner in your own country.
30. Philosophers need mental food more than physical.
31. Love your art, no matter what it is. Spend the rest of your time with the gods.
32. All societies throughout history have fallen in time, and most of them have the same issues.
33. Everything will become strange and then be forgotten in time.
34. Surrender yourself to the fates and let it happen.
35. Everything is temporary.
36. Everything is changing.
37. You're going to die, and you haven't even learned to be calm and kind yet.
38. Watch what controls people. What do they care about and do?
39. What you consider bad is not the same for other people.
40. All the universe is one whole.
41. POOR SOUL, TRAPPED IN MORTAL COIL!
42. Change is good.
43. Time is a river, and you can't step in the same river twice.
44. Everything that happens is natural.
45. Cause and effect.
46. Earth becomes water, becomes air, becomes fire.
47. If someone told you when you'd die, you wouldn't care if it was tomorrow or the next day. If you don't care about that, you shouldn't worry about if you'll die tomorrow or far into the future.
48. Most of everything that has existed is dead, destroyed, etc.
49. Be like the rock that breaks the waves. No matter what happens to you, be glad you survived it, instead of sad that it happened. Wouldn't you rather be happy about what you did to overcome it than whiny about what happened to you?
50. How much difference does it make how long you live in the long run?
51. The easiest path is following what nature wants.
PHEW!
There are some solid ones in here. Three is one of my favorites. Twenty seven is similar, but much shorter.
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