Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 1(1)

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 1(1)

Bonus: 

MA would support this happy.

Summary: Do things that make you happy, as long as its for the right reasons.

Commentary:

Trying to wrap up some of the half finished stuff before we get to April, and not feeling 1984 tonight. I feel like part one would've made a decent short story/novella, but most of two drags is kind of repetitive. 

Something I've talked a little about with Meditations before, but still sticks out to me in this part is how Marcus Aurelius wants you to be happy, have goals, etc. I think a lot of Stoicism is often distilled down to "you shouldn't feel things at all." He wants you to feel things, he's just particular about what those things are.

1. These are the characteristics of the rational soul: It beholds itself; it regulates itself in every part; it fashions itself as it wills; the fruit it bears itself enjoys, whereas the products of plants and of the lower animals are enjoyed by others. It reaches its individual end, wheresoever the close of life may overtake it. In a dance or an actor’s part any interruption spoils the completeness of the whole action. Not so with the rational soul. At whatever point in its action, or wheresoever it is overtaken by death, it makes its part complete and all-sufficient; so that it can say, “I have received what is mine.” Also it ranges through the whole universe, and the void around it, and discerns its plan. It stretches forth into limitless eternity, and grasps the periodical regeneration of all things, seeing and comprehending that those who come after us will see nothing new, and that those that went before saw no more than we have seen. Nay, a man of forty, of any tolerable understanding, has, because of the uniformity of things, seen, in a manner, all that has been or will be. Characteristic of the rational soul also are:—Love to all around us, truth, modesty; and respect for itself above all other things, which is characteristic also of the general law. Thus there is no discordance between right reason and the reason of justice.