Marc Aurèle citations

Page 13

“Du raisin vert, du raisin mûr et du raisin sec, tout cela est changement, non pour ne plus être mais pour devenir ce qui n'est pas encore.”

“L'homme ambitieux fait consister son bien dans l'action d'un autre; le voluptueux, dans ses propres sensations, l'homme sensé, dans les actions qui lui sont propres.”

“La durée de la vie humaine est un point; la matière, un flux perpétuel; la sensation, un phénomène obscur; la réunion des parties du corps, une masse corruptible; l'âme, un tourbillon; le sort, une énigme; la réputation, une chose sans jugement. Pour le dire en somme, du corps, tout est fleuve qui coule; de l'âme, tout est songe et fumée; la vie, c'est une guerre, une halte de voyageur; la renommée posthume, c'est l'oubli. Qu'est-ce donc qui peut nous servir de guide? Une chose, et une seule, la philosophie.”

“S'il arrive à quelqu'un de manquer envers toi, réfléchis aussitôt à l'opinion qu'il a dû se faire du bien ou du mal pour manquer ainsi.”

“Souviens toi que chacun ne vit que dans le moment présent, dans l'instant. Le reste, c'est le passé ou un obscur avenir. Petite est donc l'étendue de la vie.”

“Accoutume-toi à prêter sans distraction l'oreille aux paroles des autres et entre autant qu'il se peut dans la pensée de celui qui parle.”

“Parce qu'une chose offre une difficulté énorme, ne va pas croire que ce soit une chose impossible aux forces humaines; et si c'est quelque chose de possible et même de naturel à l'homme, pense que toi aussi tu es en état de le faire.”

“Le monde n'est qu'une transformation perpétuelle; la vie n'est qu'une idée et une opinion.”

“Nous devons être droits et non redressés.”

“Chacun vaut ce que valent les objectifs de son effort.”

“Self-control and resistance to distractions. Optimism in adversity—especially illness.”

“Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life,—there, if one must speak out, the real man.”

“In the case of all things which have a certain constitution, whatever harm may happen to any of them, that which is affected becomes consequently worse; but in like case, a man becomes both better... and more worthy of praise, by making the right use of these accidents.”

“Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.”

“What is my ruling faculty now to me? and of what nature am I now making it? and for what purpose am I now using it? is it void of understanding? is it loosed and rent asunder from social life? is it melted and mixed with the poor flesh so as to move together with it?”

“Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance, and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a fig, and as to time the turning of a gimlet.”

“To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.”

“Why dost thou not pray... to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen?”

“Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things which come from the external cause; and let there be justice in the things done by virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be movement and action terminating in this, in social acts, for this is according to thy nature.”

“The mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable. He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man: but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy.”

“The things... which are proper to the understanding no other man is used to impede, for neither fire, nor iron, nor tyrant, nor abuse, touches it in any way. When it has been made a sphere, it continues a sphere.”

“Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable to hold out against even this.”

“There are three relations [between thee and other things]: the one to the body which surrounds thee; the second to the divine cause from which all things come to all; and the third to those who live with thee.”

“Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not even here do all agree, no, not any one with himself: and the whole earth too is a point.”

“Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear; for where we are able to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.”

“That which had grown from the earth, to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns. This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.”

“Thou mayest foresee... the things which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of things now: accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years.”

“Wipe out the imagination. Stop pulling the strings. Confine thyself to the present. ...Divide and distribute every object into the causal [formal] and the material. ...Let the wrong which is done by a man stay there where the wrong was done.”

“Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.”

“Of Fronto, to how much envy and fraud and hypocrisy the state of a tyrannous king is subject unto, and how they who are commonly called [Eupatridas Gk.], i.e. nobly born, are in some sort incapable, or void of natural affection.”

“That to expect bad people not to injure others is crazy. It's to ask the impossible. And to let them behave like that to other people but expect them to exempt you is arrogant—the act of a tyrant.”

“A straightforward, honest person should be like someone who stinks: when you're in the same room.”

“Someone despises me. That's their problem. Mine: not to do or say anything despicable. Someone hates me. Their problem. Mine: to be patient and cheerful with everyone, including them.”

“To live your brief life rightly, isn't that enough?”

“Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it's unendurable . . . then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well.”

“Yes, boorish people do boorish things. What's strange or unheard-of about that? Isn't it yourself you should reproach—for not anticipating that they'd act this way?”

“Objective judgment, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance—now, at this very moment—of all external events. That's all you need.”

“The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them. That's all you need to know.”

“External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.”