Book VI

1. The substance of the whole is compliant and readily turned; and the reason that governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has no evil in it. It does nothing badly, nor is anything harmed by it. By its rule all things come to be and reach their end.

2. Let it make no difference to you whether you do what is fitting while shivering or warm, whether drowsy or amply rested, whether spoken ill of or praised, whether dying or doing something else. For dying too is one of the acts of life. So in this act as well, it is enough to dispose the present moment well.

3. Look within. Let neither the distinctive quality of anything nor its worth escape you.

4. All that lies before us will change with utmost speed and either rise as vapor, if substance is one, or be scattered abroad.

5. The governing reason knows its own disposition, what it is doing, and upon what material it works.

6. The finest way to defend yourself is not to become like them.

7. Take delight and find renewed repose in one thing: passing from one action for the common good to another action for the common good, with God in mind.

8. The ruling faculty is that which awakens and turns itself, makes itself whatever it wills to be, and makes everything that happens appear to it as it wills.

9. Each thing reaches its end according to the nature of the whole—not according to some other nature, whether enclosing it from without, contained within it, or suspended apart outside.

10. Either a potion of confusion, mutual entanglement, and dispersal—or unity, order, and providence. If the former, why should I desire to linger in a random compound and such a welter? What else should concern me but how one day “to become earth”? And why be troubled? Dispersal will reach me, whatever I do. But if the latter is true, I revere, stand firm, and put my trust in the One who governs.

11. Whenever circumstances compel you to be thrown, as it were, into disorder, return swiftly to yourself, and do not fall out of rhythm beyond what necessity demands. For you will gain a stronger command of the harmony by continually returning to it.

12. If you had both a stepmother and a mother, you would attend to the former, yet your return to your mother would be constant. Such for you now are the court and philosophy. Return here often and rest beside her: through her, what happens there seems bearable to you, and you are bearable amid it.

13. As when, in regard to delicacies and such foods, one receives the impression: this is the corpse of a fish, that the corpse of a bird or a pig; and again: Falernian wine is a little grape juice, and the purple-bordered robe is sheep’s hair dyed with the blood of a shellfish; and, in sexual union: the rubbing of an entrail and, with a kind of spasm, the discharge of a little mucus. Such are the impressions that reach down to the things themselves and pass right through them, so that one sees what they truly are. So must you act throughout your whole life: wherever things make too persuasive an appearance, strip them bare, look closely upon their cheapness, and remove the story by which they glorify themselves. For conceit is a formidable deceiver, and just when you think yourself most occupied with serious matters, you are most thoroughly bewitched. See, at any rate, what Crates says about Xenocrates himself.

14. Most things admired by the multitude fall under the broadest kinds of things held together by structure or nature: stones, timber, fig trees, vines, olive trees. What those of slightly better judgment admire falls under things held together by soul: owning flocks, herds, or simply a multitude of slaves. What the still more cultivated admire falls under things held together by a rational soul—not insofar as it is rational, however, but insofar as it is skilled in some craft or clever in some other way. But one who honors a soul that is rational and civic no longer turns toward any of those other things. Above all, he preserves his own soul in a rational and social disposition and movement, and works together toward that end with every soul of the same kind.

15. Some things hasten to be born, others hasten to have been; and of what is coming to be, something has already gone out. Ceaseless currents and alterations renew the cosmos, just as the unbroken sweep of time keeps boundless eternity forever new. In this river, where no one may stand still, which of these things racing past could one prize? It would be like beginning to love one of the little birds flying by: already it has vanished from sight. Such too is each person’s life—an exhalation from blood, a drawing-in from air. For as it is to take in air once and give it back, which we do at every moment, so it is also to give back the whole power of breath which you acquired yesterday or the day before, when you were newly born, to that place from which you first drew it.

16. Neither transpiring like plants is worthy of honor, nor breathing like grazing beasts and wild animals; nor being stamped by impressions; nor being jerked by impulse like a puppet; nor gathering in herds; nor feeding—for that is akin to discharging the waste of food. What, then, is worthy of honor? To be applauded? No. Then neither to be applauded by tongues, for the acclaim of the many is the clatter of tongues. So you have relinquished petty fame as well. What remains worthy of honor? This, I think: to move and be held in check according to your proper constitution—the end toward which all care and craft lead. (For every craft aims at this: that what it fashions should be well suited to the work for which it was fashioned. The gardener and the keeper of the vine, the horse trainer and the keeper of the dog, seek this.) And toward what do education and teaching hasten? Here, then, lies what is worthy of honor. If this stands well, you will secure none of those other things for yourself. Will you not stop honoring many other things too? Otherwise you will be neither free, self-sufficient, nor untroubled by passion. You will inevitably envy and be jealous, regard with suspicion those able to take those things away, and scheme against those who possess what you honor. In short, whoever lacks any such thing must be in turmoil and, besides, must often blame the gods. But reverence and honor for your own understanding will make you acceptable to yourself, well attuned to your fellows, and in accord with the gods—that is, praising all that they apportion and ordain.

17. Upward, downward, round about sweep the courses of the elements. But virtue’s motion lies in none of these: it is something more divine, advancing by a road hard to conceive, and journeying well.

18. What a thing it is that they do. They are unwilling to speak well of the people who live in their own time and in their company, yet they set great store by being spoken well of themselves by later generations—people they have never seen and never will. But this comes close to being grieved that earlier generations, too, did not speak your praises.

19. Do not suppose that, because something is hard for you yourself to accomplish, it is impossible for a human being; rather, if something is possible and proper for a human being, consider it attainable by you as well.

20. In the training ground someone has raked us with a nail or, crashing his head against ours, dealt us a blow; yet we neither mark him for it, nor take offense, nor afterward regard him suspiciously as a plotter. We do guard against him, but not as an enemy and not with suspicion: we simply give way with goodwill. Let something like this happen in the other parts of life as well: let us make allowance for much in those who are, as it were, training beside us. For we may, as I said, move out of the way without either suspecting or hating.

21. If anyone can refute me and show me that my judgment or action is not right, I shall gladly change; for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever harmed. Harm comes to the one who persists in his own deception and ignorance.

22. I do the duty that is mine; other things do not draw me aside. For they are either lifeless, irrational, or else astray and ignorant of the road.

23. Toward irrational animals—and toward things and material objects generally—I act, as one who has reason toward what has none, with nobility and freedom; toward human beings, because they have reason, I act as a fellow member of the community; and in all things I call upon the gods. Do not concern yourself with how long you will go on doing this: even three such hours are enough.

24. Alexander the Macedonian and his muleteer, once dead, came to the same condition: either they were taken back into the same seminal principles of the universe, or they were scattered alike among the atoms.

25. Consider how many bodily and psychic events occur together in each one of us within the same indivisible instant; and then you will not wonder that many more—rather, that all things coming to be within the one all-embracing whole that we call the universe—subsist in it at once.

26. If someone asks you how the name Antoninus is written, will you not pronounce each letter distinctly? What, then, if they grow angry—will you grow angry in return? Will you not calmly proceed to count out every letter? Remember, then, that here too every duty is completed from a certain number of parts. You must observe these, remain undisturbed, and not answer vexation with vexation, but bring the task before you to completion by the proper course.

27. How cruel it is not to permit human beings to pursue what appears to them fitting and beneficial. And yet, in a way, you do not allow them to do this whenever you are indignant that they go wrong; for they are invariably borne toward what they take to be fitting and beneficial to themselves. “But it is not so.” Then teach them and show them, without indignation.

28. Death: a repose from the resistance of sensation, from the puppet-twitching of impulse, from the coursing of thought, and from service to the flesh.

29. It is shameful, in a life in which your body has not yet given out, for your soul to give out before it.

30. See that you are not Caesar-dyed, not stained through; for it happens. Keep yourself, then, simple, good, uncorrupted, grave, unadorned, a friend to justice, reverent toward the gods, kindly, affectionate, steadfast in the work that is fitting. Strive to remain the person philosophy wished to make you. Revere the gods; preserve human beings. Life is brief; the one fruit of earthly life is a holy disposition and actions for the common good.

In everything, be a pupil of Antoninus: remember his vigor in doing what accords with reason; his evenness everywhere; his holiness; the serenity of his face; his gentleness; his freedom from empty glory; his devotion to comprehending affairs. Remember how he would let absolutely nothing pass before he had first inspected it thoroughly and understood it clearly; how he bore those who blamed him unjustly, without blaming them in return; how he hurried toward nothing; how he admitted no slanders; how exact an examiner he was of character and conduct, never reproachful, never easily alarmed, never suspicious, never sophistical; how little contented him—in lodging, bedding, clothing, food, and service; how hardworking and forbearing he was; how, because of his simple diet, he could remain at the same task until evening without even needing to relieve himself outside the customary hour; the firmness and constancy of his friendships; his tolerance of those who openly opposed his opinions, and his delight if anyone showed him something better; and how reverent he was toward the gods, without superstition—so that your last hour may come upon you with a conscience as clear as his.

31. Sober up, call yourself back, and wake again. Once you realize that dreams were troubling you, look upon these things, now awake, as you looked upon those.

32. I am composed of a little body and a soul. To the little body, then, all things are indifferent, for it cannot itself make distinctions. To the mind, all that is not its own activity is indifferent; but all that is its own activity lies within its power. And even among these, it is occupied only with the present; for its future and past activities are themselves already indifferent.

33. Pain is not contrary to nature for the hand or the foot, so long as the foot performs the work of a foot and the hand the work of a hand. In the same way, pain is not contrary to nature for a human being as a human being, so long as he performs the work of a human being; and if it is not contrary to his nature, neither is it an evil for him.

34. What mighty pleasures have been enjoyed by robbers, sexual debauchees, men who struck their fathers, and tyrants.

35. Do you not see how artisans in the common trades accommodate themselves up to a point to laypeople, yet nevertheless hold fast to the principle of their craft and will not endure abandoning it? Is it not dreadful if the architect and the physician show greater reverence for the principle of their own craft than a human being shows for his own—the principle he shares with the gods?

36. Asia, Europe—corners of the cosmos. Every sea—a drop of the cosmos. Athos—a clod of the cosmos. All the present—a point in eternity. All things are small, easily turned, vanishing away.

All things come from there, set in motion by that common governing principle, or following as consequences. And so the lion’s gaping jaws, poison, and everything that does harm—like the thorn, like the mire—are outgrowths of those august and beautiful things. Do not imagine them, then, alien to that which you revere, but reckon up the source of all things.

37. Whoever has seen the present has seen all things: all that has come to be from eternity, and all that will be into infinity. For all are of one kind and one form.

38. Often call to mind the interconnection of all things in the cosmos and their relation to one another. For in a way all things are interwoven with one another, and in this respect all are dear to one another: one thing follows upon another because of the tensional movement, the common breath, and the unity of substance.

39. Fit yourself to the circumstances allotted with you; and love the people allotted with you—but truly.

40. Every instrument, tool, and vessel is sound when it performs the work for which it was fashioned, though in its case the craftsman is elsewhere. But in things held together by nature, the power that fashioned them is within and remains there. You should therefore revere her all the more, and believe that, if your condition and conduct accord with her will, everything is as your mind would have it. And in the same way, the Whole has its own affairs as its mind would have them.

41. Whatever among the things outside your choice you suppose to be good or evil, it follows necessarily that, when you encounter such an evil or fail to attain such a good, you will blame the gods and hate those people who are, or whom you suspect of becoming, the causes of the failure or the encounter. Indeed, we commit many injustices because of the distinctions we make concerning these things. But if we judge only what is up to us to be good or evil, no cause remains either to accuse a god or to take a hostile stand against a human being.

42. We all work together toward one result: some knowingly and with understanding, others without knowing it—just as Heraclitus, I think, says that even sleepers are workers and fellow-workers in what comes to pass in the cosmos. Each contributes in a different way; and contributing in superabundance are the faultfinder and the one who tries to resist and undo what comes to pass—for the cosmos had need even of such a person. It remains, then, for you to understand among which you rank yourself. For he who governs the Whole will certainly make good use of you and receive you as some part of the company of workers and contributing powers. But do not you become the sort of part played by the cheap and ridiculous line in the drama that Chrysippus mentions.

43. Does the Sun claim the work of the Rain-god as his to do? Does Asclepius claim the work of the Fruit-bearer? And what of each of the stars? Are they not different, yet fellow-workers toward the same end?

44. If the gods have deliberated about me and what must happen to me, they have deliberated well. For a god without counsel is not easy even to conceive; and for what reason would they be moved to harm me? What advantage would come of it either to them or to the common good, for which they care above all? But if they have not deliberated about me individually, they have certainly deliberated about the common good; and since these things happen as consequences of that, I ought to welcome and cherish them.

But suppose they deliberate about nothing—an impious thing to believe; or else let us neither sacrifice nor pray nor swear nor do any of the other things we do at every turn as though the gods were present and living beside us. Yet suppose, then, that they deliberate about none of our concerns: I am still able to deliberate about myself, and mine is the consideration of what is beneficial. What benefits each being is what accords with its own constitution and nature; and my nature is rational and civic.

As Antoninus, my city and fatherland is Rome; as a human being, the cosmos. Therefore only what benefits these cities is good for me.

45. Whatever happens to each being benefits the Whole. That would suffice. But if you watch closely, you will also see this to be generally true: whatever happens to one human being benefits other human beings as well. Here, however, let “benefit” be understood more broadly in the case of things indifferent.

46. Just as the spectacles in the amphitheatre and places of that kind grow wearisome to you because the same things are always seen, and their sameness makes the sight cloying, so you suffer throughout the whole of life. For everything, above and below, is the same and comes from the same things. How long, then?

47. Continually reflect that people of every kind, pursuing every kind of life and belonging to every nation, have died; descend in thought as far as Philistion, Phoebus, and Origanion. Pass now to the other tribes. We must indeed change our abode to where so many formidable orators lie, so many grave philosophers—Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates—so many heroes of earlier days, and after them so many generals and tyrants. And besides these, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and other natures acute, great-minded, industrious, cunning, overbearing—even mockers of humanity’s perishable, day-long life, such as Menippus and all his kind. Of them all, reflect that they have long lain there. What, then, is terrible in this for them? And what of those whose very names are wholly unknown?

One thing here is worth much: to live out your life with truth and justice, gracious toward liars and the unjust.

48. When you wish to gladden yourself, call to mind the excellences of those who live with you: the energy of one, the modesty of another, another’s generosity, and something else in another. For nothing gladdens us so much as the images of the virtues shining through the characters of those who share our lives, gathered together as thickly as may be. Therefore keep them ready to hand.

49. Surely you are not aggrieved that you weigh only so many pounds and not three hundred? Then neither be aggrieved that you must live only so many years and no more. As you cherish the portion of substance marked off for you, so too cherish the portion of time.

50. Try to persuade them; yet act even against their will whenever the reason of justice leads that way. But if someone uses force to withstand you, pass over into gracious acceptance and freedom from distress; make use of the obstruction for another virtue, and remember that your impulse was made with reservation and that you were not reaching for the impossible. What, then, were you reaching for? An impulse of a certain kind. And this you attain: that toward which we were moved has come to pass.

51. The lover of fame takes another’s activity for his own good; the lover of pleasure, his own passive feeling; but the one who has understanding, his own action.

52. You are free to form no judgment about this, and not to trouble your soul; for things themselves have no nature capable of producing our judgments.

53. Train yourself to stay close to what another is saying, without inserting thoughts of your own, and, as far as possible, enter the speaker’s soul. What does not benefit the hive does not benefit the bee.

54. If the sailors spoke ill of the man steering them, or the sick of the man treating them, would he attend to anything else? How else could he himself bring about the safety of those aboard, or the health of those under his care?

55. How many of those with whom I entered the cosmos have already gone away.

56. To those with jaundice, honey tastes bitter; to those bitten by a rabid dog, water is terrifying; and to little children, a ball is beautiful. Why, then, am I angry? Or do you think delusion has less power than bile has in the jaundiced, or venom in one bitten by a rabid dog?

57. No one will prevent you from living according to the reason of your own nature; nothing will happen to you contrary to the reason of the common nature.

58. What sort of people they are whom they wish to please; for what things they strive to prevail, and through what actions. How swiftly the age will cover everything—and how much it has covered already.

1. The substance of the universe is yielding and easy to reshape. The reason governing it has no motive in itself for causing harm, because it contains no evil. It does nothing wrong, and nothing is harmed by it. Everything happens and is completed in accordance with it.

2. Do not care whether you are cold or warm when you do what you should; whether sleepy or well rested; whether criticized or praised; whether dying or engaged in some other action. Dying is itself one of the things we do in life. So even then, it is enough to handle the present well.

3. Look inside. Do not overlook what any thing is like in itself or what value it has.

4. Everything that exists will change very quickly. It will either evaporate, if substance forms one whole, or disperse.

5. The reason that governs knows what state it is in, what it is doing, and what material it is working on.

6. The best retaliation is not to imitate the person who wronged you.

7. Enjoy and refresh yourself in this alone: move from one action that serves the community to another, remembering God.

8. The directing mind rouses and redirects itself. It makes itself whatever it chooses to be, and makes whatever happens seem to it the way it chooses.

9. Everything is completed in line with the nature of the universe. It does not follow some other nature that surrounds it externally, is enclosed inside it, or hangs detached beyond it.

10. Either there is a jumble, a mutual snarl, and a scattering; or there is unity, order, and providence. If it is the first, why do I want to remain in an accidental mixture and this kind of mess? What should matter to me except how eventually “to become earth”? Why am I disturbed? No matter what I do, dissolution will come to me. But if it is the second, I worship, remain steady, and trust the governor of all.

11. When surrounding events force you into something like confusion, quickly come back to yourself. Do not lose your rhythm for longer than necessary. You will master the harmony better by returning to it again and again.

12. If you had both a stepmother and your own mother, you would care for your stepmother, but you would keep going back to your mother. The imperial court and philosophy now stand in that relation for you. Come back to philosophy often and find rest in her. Because of her, life at court seems tolerable to you, and you are tolerable while there.

13. With rich dishes and similar foods, form an impression such as this: this is a dead fish; that is a dead bird or pig. Or again: Falernian wine is some juice from grapes, and a purple-edged robe is sheep’s wool stained with the blood of a shellfish. About sex: it is the rubbing of an internal organ and the release of a little mucus in a spasm. Impressions like these get down to the actual things and go through them, letting us see what they really are. You should do this throughout life. Whenever things present themselves as highly impressive, uncover them, examine how little they are worth, and take away the tale that makes them grand. Vanity is a powerful cheat. When you think you are most engaged in important business, that is when it most completely casts its spell on you. Just consider what Crates says even about Xenocrates.

14. Most things the crowd admires belong to the most general class of objects held together by physical structure or natural growth: stone, wood, fig trees, grapevines, and olive trees. People with a little more discernment admire things governed by animal life, such as owning flocks, herds, or simply many slaves. More refined people admire things governed by a rational mind, though not for its rationality, but for its technical skill or some other kind of cleverness. But anyone who values a rational mind made for civic life pays no more attention to those other things. Above all, that person keeps their own mind rational and cooperative in its condition and activity, and helps others of the same nature do likewise.

15. Some things are rushing into existence; others are rushing into the past. Even while something is coming into being, part of it has already disappeared. Continuous flows and changes constantly renew the universe, just as time’s uninterrupted movement keeps infinite duration always fresh. In this river, where no one can remain still, what could anyone value among the things speeding past? It would be like starting to love a small bird as it flies by: it has already gone from view. Each person’s life is much the same: vapor rising from the blood and breath drawn from the air. We inhale air once and return it, as we do moment by moment. In the same way, we return our entire capacity to breathe—the capacity we received when we were born yesterday or the day before—to the source from which we first drew it.

16. It is not admirable merely to exchange air like plants, to breathe like livestock and wild animals, to receive the imprint of sense impressions, to be pulled by impulses like a marionette, to gather in groups, or to eat—for eating is much like expelling the waste left from food. What is admirable, then? Being applauded? No. So neither is receiving applause from people’s tongues, since popular praise is only the noise of tongues. You have now given up your little reputation too. What remains to be valued? I think it is acting and restraining yourself in accordance with your own design. All practical care and every craft aim at that. (Every craft seeks to make its product fit for the work it was designed to perform. A gardener and a person tending a vineyard, a horse trainer and a dog keeper all seek this.) What do education and instruction aim for? There is the thing to value. If that is in good condition, you will not try to obtain anything else for yourself. Will you not stop valuing many other things? If not, you will never be free, self-sufficient, or calm. You will have to be envious and jealous, suspicious of people who can take those things from you, and hostile toward people who have what you value. In general, anyone who needs one of those things is bound to be confused and, in addition, often to blame the gods. But respecting and valuing your own mind will make you pleased with yourself, harmonious with your companions, and in agreement with the gods—that is, approving everything they allot and arrange.

17. The elements move up, down, and in circles. Virtue does not move in any of these ways. Its movement is something more divine: it advances successfully along a path that is difficult to comprehend.

18. Look at what they do. They do not want to praise the people who are alive at the same time and living among them, but they care greatly about being praised by people born later, whom they have never seen and never will see. That is almost the same as being upset because people born before you did not praise you too.

19. Do not think that something is impossible for a human being just because you yourself find it hard to do. If it is possible and natural for a human being, believe that you too can achieve it.

20. While training, someone may scratch us with a nail or hit us by colliding headfirst with us. But we do not hold it against him, take offense, or afterward suspect him of trying to harm us. We are careful around him, but not as if he were an enemy and not with suspicion; we avoid him in a friendly way. Do the same in the rest of life: overlook many things done by people who are, so to speak, training alongside us. As I said, we can keep out of their way without suspecting or hating them.

21. If someone can prove to me and show me that I am thinking or acting wrongly, I will gladly change. I am looking for the truth, and the truth has never harmed anyone. The person who is harmed is the one who remains stuck in his own error and ignorance.

22. I do the duty that belongs to me. Everything else does not distract me, because it is either without life, without reason, or lost and unaware of the way.

23. Treat animals without reason, and things and objects in general, generously and freely, as a rational being dealing with what has no reason. Treat human beings as members of the same community, since they do have reason. In everything, call on the gods. Do not worry about how long you will live this way; even three hours like this are enough.

24. After they died, Alexander of Macedon and his mule driver came to the same state. Either they were taken back into the same generative principles of the universe, or they were both dispersed into atoms.

25. Think how many physical and mental processes happen at the same instant in each of us. Then you will not be surprised that many more things—in fact, everything that happens within the single whole we call the universe—exist in it at the same time.

26. If someone asks you how to spell the name Antoninus, won’t you clearly say each letter? Then what if people get angry? Will you get angry back? Won’t you calmly go through the letters one by one? Remember that every duty is likewise completed through a certain number of steps. Pay attention to those steps, do not become upset or respond angrily to angry people, and finish the task in front of you in an orderly way.

27. How cruel it is not to let people pursue what seems suitable and beneficial to them. Yet in a sense you refuse to let them do that when you are angry at them for making mistakes, because they are always moving toward what they think is suitable and beneficial for themselves. “But they are wrong.” Then teach them and show them, without getting angry.

28. Death is rest from the impact of sensation, the tugging of impulses, the activity of thought, and service to the body.

29. It is shameful for your mind to give up while your body is still holding out.

30. Take care not to become thoroughly Caesar-like or dyed by the role; that does happen. Keep yourself honest, good, unspoiled, dignified, unpretentious, devoted to justice, respectful of the gods, kind, affectionate, and strong in doing what you should. Work to remain the person philosophy wanted to make you. Respect the gods and protect people. Life is short. The one fruit of life on earth is a godly character and actions that serve the community.

In everything, act as a student of Antoninus. Remember his energy in doing what reason required, his steady character in every situation, his reverence, his calm expression, his gentleness, his lack of vanity, and his determination to understand things. Remember that he never let anything pass until he had examined it carefully and understood it clearly; that he endured unjust criticism without criticizing in return; that he rushed into nothing; that he did not accept accusations made behind people’s backs; that he carefully examined people’s character and actions without finding fault, taking fright, becoming suspicious, or showing off his cleverness; that he was satisfied with little in his home, bedding, clothes, food, and servants; that he worked hard and was patient; that his simple diet allowed him to stay at the same work until evening without needing to relieve himself outside his usual time; that he was firm and consistent in his friendships; that he tolerated people who openly disagreed with his views and was glad when anyone showed him a better way; and that he respected the gods without superstition. Live so that your final hour finds your conscience as clear as his.

31. Come to your senses, call yourself back, and wake up again. Once you understand that dreams were disturbing you, look at the things around you while awake just as you looked at those dreams.

32. I am made of a small body and a mind. Everything is indifferent to the body, because the body cannot judge differences. For the mind, everything that is not its own action is indifferent, while all its own actions are under its control. Even then, it deals only with its present action, since its future and past actions are already indifferent to it.

33. Pain is not unnatural for a hand or a foot as long as the foot does what a foot should do and the hand does what a hand should do. In the same way, pain is not unnatural for a human being as long as that person does what a human being should do. And if pain is not unnatural for someone, it is not bad for that person either.

34. Think how much pleasure robbers, sexually depraved men, men who beat their fathers, and tyrants have enjoyed.

35. Don’t you see how ordinary craftsmen adapt to people outside their trade up to a point, but still hold firmly to the rules of their craft and refuse to abandon them? Isn’t it terrible if an architect or doctor respects the principles of his own profession more than a human being respects his own reason, which he shares with the gods?

36. Asia and Europe are corners of the world. Every sea is a drop in the world. Mount Athos is a clod of earth in the world. The whole present is a point in eternity. Everything is small, easily changed, and disappearing.

Everything comes from that source, either set in motion by the common governing mind or arising as a consequence. So too the lion’s open jaws, poison, and everything harmful—like thorns and mud—are by-products of things that are majestic and beautiful. Do not think these things are foreign to what you revere. Instead, consider the source of everything.

37. Anyone who has seen what exists now has seen everything that has happened from eternity and everything that will happen without end, because it is all of the same kind and pattern.

38. Often think about how everything in the world is connected and how things relate to one another. In a sense, everything is woven together, and for that reason all things belong together. One thing follows another because of the movement of tension, the shared breath, and the unity of matter.

39. Adapt yourself to the circumstances assigned to you, and genuinely love the people who share your lot.

40. Any instrument, tool, or piece of equipment is in good condition when it does what it was made to do, even though its maker is no longer present. But in things formed and held together by nature, the power that made them stays within them. You should therefore respect nature all the more and believe that, if you live and act according to her purpose, everything will be as you would rationally wish. In the same way, everything belonging to the universe is as its governing mind intends.

41. If you regard anything outside your control as good or bad, then whenever you meet with that supposed evil or fail to obtain that supposed good, you are bound to blame the gods and hate the people who caused—or whom you suspect may cause—the failure or misfortune. We do many wrongs because we treat these external things as making a real difference. But if we judge only what depends on us to be good or bad, we have no reason either to accuse a god or to oppose another person as an enemy.

42. We all help produce one result. Some do so knowingly and with awareness, while others do so without knowing it. Heraclitus, I think, even says that people who are asleep are workers and partners in what happens in the world. Different people contribute in different ways. Even the person who complains, resists, and tries to undo events contributes in an extra way, because the world needed that kind of person too. So understand which group you are placing yourself in. The power governing the universe will certainly make good use of you and include you as one of its workers and active parts. But do not become the kind of part represented by the cheap, absurd line in the play that Chrysippus mentions.

43. Does the Sun try to do the work of the god who brings rain? Does Asclepius try to do the work of the goddess who brings crops? And what about each star? Their tasks differ, but do they not all work together toward the same end?

44. If the gods have made plans for me and for what is meant to happen to me, their plans are good. It is hard even to imagine a god who acts without thought. And why would they intend to harm me? What benefit would that bring either to them or to the common good, which is their chief concern? If they have not planned for me personally, they have certainly planned for the common good. Since what happens to me follows from that plan, I ought to welcome and accept it.

But suppose they plan nothing at all. It is irreverent to believe this; otherwise, let us stop sacrificing, praying, swearing oaths, and doing all the other things we constantly do as if the gods were present and living with us. Still, suppose they plan nothing that concerns us. I can plan for myself, and I can consider what benefits me. What benefits any being is what suits its own make-up and nature, and my nature is rational and social.

As Antoninus, my city and homeland is Rome. As a human being, it is the world. So only what benefits these two cities is good for me.

45. Whatever happens to each individual benefits the whole. That is enough. But if you pay attention, you will also generally see that what happens to one person benefits other people too. Here the word “benefit” should be understood in a broader sense when applied to things that are neither good nor bad in themselves.

46. The events in the amphitheater and similar places become tiresome because you keep seeing the same things, and their sameness makes the spectacle tedious. You have the same experience with life as a whole. Everything, high and low, is the same and comes from the same sources. So how long will this continue to trouble you?

47. Keep thinking of all kinds of people—people with every sort of occupation and from every nation—who have died. Carry the thought down to Philistion, Phoebus, and Origanion. Then move on to other groups. We must go to the same place where so many powerful speakers and respected philosophers now are—Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates—as well as so many earlier heroes and, after them, so many generals and tyrants. There too are Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and other people who were sharp-minded, high-minded, hardworking, crafty, or arrogant, including men like Menippus who mocked the brief and perishable life of human beings. Think about all of them: they have been lying there for a long time. What is so terrible about that for them? And what about those whose names are not known at all?

One thing here is of great value: to live with truth and justice while remaining kind toward liars and unjust people.

48. When you want to cheer yourself, think of the good qualities of the people who live with you: one person’s energy, another’s modesty, another’s generosity, and some other quality in someone else. Nothing is as cheering as seeing examples of the virtues in the characters of those around us, especially when many appear together. So keep these qualities in mind.

49. You are not upset that you weigh only a certain number of pounds rather than three hundred. In the same way, do not be upset that you are to live only a certain number of years rather than more. Just as you accept the amount of matter allotted to you, accept the amount of time as well.

50. Try to persuade them, but act even without their consent when justice directs you to do so. If someone uses force to stop you, then accept it calmly and without distress, and use the obstacle as an opportunity to practice another virtue. Remember that you began with the reservation that your action might be prevented, and that you were not trying to achieve the impossible. What were you trying to achieve, then? To make the right kind of effort. You have achieved that. What we set ourselves in motion to do has been accomplished.

51. A person who loves fame thinks someone else’s activity is his own good; a person who loves pleasure thinks his own experience is; but a person with understanding thinks his own action is.

52. You can have no opinion about this and not let your mind be disturbed. Things themselves cannot create our judgments about them.

53. Train yourself to listen to what another person is saying without adding your own thoughts, and as far as you can, put yourself inside the speaker’s mind. What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee either.

54. If sailors criticized their pilot, or patients their doctor, would he pay attention to anything else? Otherwise, how could he keep those sailing with him safe, or make those he was treating healthy?

55. How many people who entered the world with me have already departed.

56. Honey tastes bitter to people with jaundice, water frightens people bitten by a rabid dog, and a ball seems wonderful to children. So why am I angry? Do you think a mistaken belief is less powerful than bile in someone with jaundice, or poison in someone bitten by a rabid dog?

57. No one can stop you from living in accordance with the reason of your own nature. Nothing can happen to you against the reason of nature as a whole.

58. Think what the people they want to please are like, what they seek to gain, and what actions they use to gain it. How quickly time will cover everything, and how much it has already covered.

1. The Universal Substance is docile and ductile; and the Reason that controls it has no motive in itself to do wrong. For it hath no wrongness and doeth no wrong, nor is anything harmed by it. But all things come into being and fulfil their purpose as it directs.

2. Make no difference in doing thy duty whether thou art shivering or warm, drowsy or sleep-satisfied, defamed or extolled, dying or anything else. For the act of dying too is one of the acts of life. So it is enough in this also to get the work in hand done well.

3. Look within. Let not the special quality or worth of anything escape thee.

4. All objective things will anon be changed and either etherialized into the Universal Substance, if that indeed be one, or dispersed abroad.

5. The controlling Reason knows its own bent and its work and the medium it works in.

6. The best way of avenging thyself is not to do likewise.

7. Delight in this one thing and take thy rest therein—from social act to go on to social act, keeping all thy thoughts on God.

8. The ruling Reason it is that can arouse and deflect itself, make itself whatever it will, and invest everything that befalls with such a semblance as it wills.

9. In accordance with the Nature of the Universe is accomplished each several thing. For surely this cannot be in accordance with any other nature, that either envelops it from without, or is enveloped by it within, or exists in external detachment outside it.

10. Either a medley and a tangled web and a dispersion abroad, or a unity and a plan and a Providence. If the former, why should I even wish to abide in such a random welter and chaos? Why care for anything else than to turn again to the dust at last. Why be disquieted? For, do what I will, the dispersion must overtake me. But if the latter, I bow in reverence, my feet are on the rock, and I put my trust in the Power that rules.

11. When forced, as it seems, by thine environment to be utterly disquieted, return with all speed into thy self, staying in discord no longer than thou must. By constant recurrence to the harmony, thou wilt gain more command over it.

12. Hadst thou at once a stepmother and a mother thou wouldst pay due service to the former, and yet thy constant recourse would be to thy mother. So hast thou now the court and philosophy for stepmother and mother. Cease not then to come to the latter and take thy rest in her, whereby shall both thy court life seem more tolerable to thee, and thou to thy court life.

13. As in the case of meat and similar eatables the thought strikes us, this is the dead body of a fish, this of a fowl or pig; and again that this Falernian is merely the juice of a grape-cluster, and this purple-edged robe is nought but sheep's wool steeped in the blood of a shell-fish; or, of sexual intercourse, that it is merely internal attrition and the spasmodic excretion of mucus —such, I say, as are these impressions that get to grips with the actual things and enter into the heart of them, so as to see them as they really are, thus should it be thy life through, and where things look to be above measure convincing, laying them quite bare, behold their paltriness and strip off their conventional prestige. For conceit is a past master in fallacies and, when thou flatterest thyself most that thou art engaged in worthy tasks, then art thou most of all deluded by it. At any rate, see what Crates has to say about none other than Xenocrates.

14. Objects admired by the common sort come chiefly under things of the most general kind, which are held together by physical coherence, such as stones and wood, or by a natural unity, such as figs, vines, olives; and those which are admired by persons of a somewhat higher capacity may be classed as things which are held together by a conscious life, such as flocks and herds; and those which are admired by persons still more refined, as things held together by a rational soul; I do not mean rational as part of the Universal Reason, but in the sense of master of an art or expert in some other way, or merely in so far as to own a host of slaves. But he that prizes a soul which is rational, universal, and civic, no longer turns after anything else, but rather than everything besides keeps his own soul, in itself and in its activity, rational and social, and to this end works conjointly with all that is akin to him.

15. Some things are hastening to be, others to be no more, while of those that haste into being some part is already extinct. Fluxes and changes perpetually renew the world, just as the unbroken march of time makes ever new the infinity of ages. In this river of change, which of the things which swirl past him, whereon no firm foothold is possible, should a man prize so highly? As well fall in love with a sparrow that flits past and in a moment is gone from our eyes. In fact a man's life itself is but as an exhalation from blood and an inhalation from the air. For just as it is to draw in the air once into our lungs and give it back again, as we do every moment, so is it to give back thither, whence thou didst draw it first, thy faculty of breathing which thou didst receive at thy birth yesterday or the day before.

16. Neither is it an inner respiration, such as that of plants, that we should prize, nor the breathing which we have in common with cattle and wild animals, nor the impressions we receive through our senses, nor that we are pulled by our impulses like marionettes, nor our gregarious instincts, nor our need of nutriment; for that is on a par with the rejection of the waste products of our food.

17. Up, down, round-wise sweep the elements along. But the motion of virtue is in none of these ways. It is something more divine, and going forward on a mysterious path fares well upon its way.

18. What a way to act! Men are chary of commending their contemporaries and associates, while they themselves set great store by the commendation of posterity, whom they have never seen or shall see. But this is next door to taking it amiss that thy predecessors also did not commend thee.

19. Because thou findest a thing difficult for thyself to accomplish do not conceive it to be impracticable for others; but whatever is possible for a man and in keeping with his nature consider also attainable by thyself.

20. Suppose that a competitor in the ring has gashed us with his nails and butted us violently with his head, we do not protest or take it amiss or suspect our opponent in future of foul play. Still we do keep an eye on him, not indeed as an enemy, or from suspicion of him, but with good-humoured avoidance. Act much in the same way in all the other parts of life. Let us make many allowances for our fellow-athletes as it were. Avoidance is always possible, as I have said, without suspicion or hatred.

21. If any one can prove and bring home to me that a conception or act of mine is wrong, I will amend it, and be thankful. For I seek the truth, whereby no one was ever harmed. But he is harmed who persists in his own self-deception and ignorance.

22. I do my own duty; other things do not distract me. For they are either inanimate or irrational, or such as have gone astray and know not the road.

23. Conduct thyself with magnanimity and freedom towards irrational creatures and, generally, towards circumstances and objective things, for thou hast reason and they have none. But men have reason, therefore treat them as fellow creatures. And in all cases call upon the Gods, and do not concern thyself with the question, How long shall I do this? Three hours are enough so spent.

24. Death reduced to the same condition Alexander the Macedonian and his muleteer, for either they were taken back into the same Seminal Reason of the Universe or scattered alike into the atoms.

25. Bear in mind how many things happen to each one of us with respect to our bodies as well as our souls in the same momentary space of time, so wilt thou cease to wonder that many more things—not to say all the things that come into existence in that One and Whole which in fact we call the Universe—subsist in it at one time.

26. If one enquire of thee, How is the name Antoninus written? wilt thou with vehemence enunciate each constituent letter? What then? If thy listeners lose their temper, wilt thou lose thine? Wouldst thou not go on gently to enumerate each letter? So recollect that in life too every duty is the sum of separate items. Of these thou must take heed, and carry through methodically what is set before thee, in no wise troubled or shewing counter-irritation against those who are irritated with thee.

27. How intolerant it is not to permit men to cherish an impulse towards what is in their eyes congenial and advantageous! Yet in a sense thou withholdest from them the right to do this, when thou resentest their wrong-doing. For they are undoubtedly drawn to what they deem congenial and advantageous. But they are mistaken. Well, then, teach and enlighten them without any resentment.

28. Death is a release from the impressions of sense, and from impulses that make us their puppets, from the vagaries of the mind, and the hard service of the flesh.

29. It is a disgrace for the soul to be the first to succumb in that life in which the body does not succumb.

30. See thou be not Caesarified, nor take that dye, for there is the possibility. So keep thyself a simple and good man, uncorrupt, dignified, plain, a friend of justice, god-fearing, gracious, affectionate, manful in doing thy duty. Strive to be always such as Philosophy minded to make thee. Revere the Gods, save mankind. Life is short. This only is the harvest of earthly existence, a righteous disposition and social acts.

31. Be sober once more and call back thy senses, and being roused again from sleep and, realizing that they were but dreams that beset thee, now awake again, look at these realities as thou didst at those thy dreams.

32. I consist of body and soul. To the body indeed all things are indifferent, for it cannot concern itself with them. But to the mind only those things are indifferent which are not its own activities; and all those things that are its own activities are in its own power. Howbeit, of these it is only concerned with the present; for as to its activities in the past and the future, these two rank at once among things indifferent.

33. For hand or foot to feel pain is no violation of nature, so long as the foot does its own appointed work, and the hand its own. Similarly pain for a man, as man, is no unnatural thing so long as he does a man's appointed work. But, if not unnatural, then is it not an evil either.

34. The pleasures of the brigand, the pathic, the parricide, the tyrant —just think what they are!

35. Dost thou not see how the mechanic craftsman, though to some extent willing to humour the non-expert, yet holds fast none the less to the principles of his handicraft, and cannot endure to depart from them. Is it not strange that the architect and the physician should hold the rationale of their respective arts in higher reverence than a man his own reason, which he has in common with the Gods?

36. Asia, Europe, corners of the Universe: the whole Ocean a drop in the Universe: Athos but a little clod therein: all the present a point in Eternity:—everything on a tiny scale, so easily changed, so quickly vanished.

37. He, who sees what now is, hath seen all that ever hath been from times everlasting, and that shall be to eternity; for all things are of one lineage and one likeness.

38. Meditate often on the intimate union and mutual interdependence of all things in the Universe. For in a manner all things are mutually intertwined, and thus all things have a liking for one another. For these things are consequent one on another by reason of their contracting and expanding motion, the sympathy that breathes through them, and the unity of all substance.

39. Fit thyself to the environment that is thy portion, and love the men among whom thy lot is thrown, but whole-heartedly.

40. Every implement, tool, or vessel is well if it do the work for which it is made, and yet in their case the maker is not at hand. But in the things which owe their organic unity to Nature, the Power that made is within them and abides there. Wherefore also must thou reverence it the more, and realize that if thou keep and conduct thyself ever according to its will, all is to thy mind. So also to its mind are the things of the Universe.

41. If thou regardest anything not in thine own choice as good or evil for thyself, it is inevitable that, on the incidence of such an evil or the miscarriage of such a good, thou shouldst upbraid the Gods, aye, and hate men as the actual or supposed cause of the one or the other; and in fact many are the wrongdoings we commit by setting a value on such things. But if we discriminate as good and evil only the things in our power, there is no occasion left for accusing the Gods or taking the stand of an enemy towards men.

42. We are all fellow-workers towards the fulfilment of one object, some of us knowingly and intelligently, others blindly; just as Heraclitus, I think, says that even when they sleep men are workers and fellow-agents in all that goes on in the world. One is a co-agent in this, another in that, and in abundant measure also he that murmurs and seeks to hinder or disannul what occurs. For the Universe had need of such men also. It remains then for thee to decide with whom thou art ranging thyself. For He that controls the Universe will in any case put thee to a good use and admit thee to a place among his fellow-workers and coadjutors. But see that thou fill no such place as the paltry and ridiculous line in the play which Chrysippus mentions.

43. Does the sun take upon himself to discharge the functions of the rain? or Asclepius of the Fruit-bearer? And what of each particular star? Do they not differ in glory yet co-operate to one end?

44. If the Gods have taken counsel about me and the things to befall me, doubtless they have taken good counsel. For it is not easy even to imagine a God without wisdom. And what motive could they have impelling them to do me evil? For what advantage could thereby accrue to them or to the Universe which is their special care? But if the Gods have taken no counsel for me individually, yet they have in any case done so for the interests of the Universe, and I am bound to welcome and make the best of those things also that befall as a necessary corollary to those interests. But if so be they take counsel about nothing at all—an impious belief—in good sooth let us have no more of sacrifices and prayers and oaths, nor do any other of these things every one of which is a recognition of the Gods as if they were at our side and dwelling amongst us—but if so be, I say, they do not take counsel about any of our concerns, it is still in my power to take counsel about myself, and it is for me to consider my own interest. And that is to every man's interest which is agreeable to his own constitution and nature. But my nature is rational and civic; my city and country, as Antoninus, is Rome; as a man, the world. The things then that are of advantage to these communities, these, and no other, are good for me.

45. All that befalls the Individual is to the interest of the Whole also. So far, so good. But further careful observation will shew thee that, as a general rule, what is to the interest of one man is also to the interest of other men. But in this case the word interest must be taken in a more general sense as it applies to intermediate things.

46. As the shows in the amphitheatre and such places grate upon thee as being an everlasting repetition of the same sight, and the similarity makes the spectacle pall, such must be the effect of the whole of life. For everything above and below is ever the same and the result of the same things. How long then?

47. Never lose sight of the fact that men of all kinds, of all sorts of vocations and of every race under heaven, are dead; and so carry thy thought down even to Philistion and Phoebus and Origanion. Now turn to the other tribes of men. We must pass at last to the same bourne whither so many wonderful orators have gone, so many grave philosophers, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates: so many heroes of old time, and so many warriors, so many tyrants of later days: and besides them, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and other acute natures, men of large minds, lovers of toil, men of versatile powers, men of strong will, mockers, like Menippus and many another such, of man's perishable and transitory life itself. About all these reflect that they have long since been in their graves. What terrible thing then is this for them? What pray for those whose very names are unknown? One thing on earth is worth much—to live out our lives in truth and justice, and in charity with liars and unjust men.

48. When thou wouldst cheer thine heart, think upon the good qualities of thy associates; as for instance, this one's energy, that one's modesty, the generosity of a third, and some other trait of a fourth. For nothing is so cheering as the images of the virtues mirrored in the characters of those who live with us, and presenting themselves in as great a throng as possible. Have these images then ever before thine eyes.

49. Thou art not aggrieved, art thou, at being so many pounds in weight and not three hundred? Then why be aggrieved if thou hast only so many years to live and no more? For as thou art contented with the amount of matter allotted thee, so be content also with the time.

50. Try persuasion first, but even though men would say thee nay, act when the principles of justice so direct. Should any one however withstand thee by force, take refuge in being well-content and unhurt, and utilize the obstacle for the display of some other virtue. Recollect that the impulse thou hadst was conditioned by circumstances, and thine aim was not to do impossibilities. What then was it? To feel some such impulse as thou didst. In that thou art successful. That which alone was in the sphere of our choice is realized.

51. The lover of glory conceives his own good to consist in another's action, the lover of pleasure in his own feelings, but the possessor of understanding in his own actions.

52. We need not form any opinion about the thing in question or be harassed in soul, for Nature gives the thing itself no power to compel our judgments.

53. Train thyself to pay careful attention to what is being said by another and as far as possible enter into his soul.

54. That which is not in the interests of the hive cannot be in the interests of the bee.

55. If the sailors spoke ill of a steersman or the sick of a physician, what else would they have in mind but how the man should best effect the safety of the crew or the health of his patients?

56. How many have already left the world who came into it with me!

57. To the jaundiced honey tastes bitter; and the victim of hydrophobia has a horror of water; and to little children their ball is a treasure. Why then angry? Or dost thou think that error is a less potent factor than bile in the jaundiced and virus in the victim of rabies?

58. From living according to the reason of thy nature no one can prevent thee: contrary to the reason of the Universal Nature nothing shall befall thee.

59. The persons men wish to please, the objects they wish to gain, the means they employ—think of the character of all these! How soon will Time hide all things! How many a thing has it already hidden!