Marc Aurèle citations célèbres
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Marc Aurèle Citations
Marc Aurèle: Citations en anglais
“The universal nature has no external space”
VIII, 50
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Contexte: The universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything which is within her which appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter, and her own art.
“The things… which are proper to the understanding no other man is used to impede”
VIII, 41
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Contexte: 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.
“He who flies from his master is a runaway; but the law is master”
X, 25
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
Contexte: He who flies from his master is a runaway; but the law is master, and he who breaks the law is a runaway. And he also who is grieved or angry or afraid, is dissatisfied because something has been or is or shall be of the things which are appointed by Him who rules all things, and He is Law, and assigns to every man what is fit. He then who fears or is grieved or is angry is a runaway.
X, 36
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
Contexte: There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen. Suppose that he was a good and a wise man, will there not be at least some one to say to himself, Let us at last breathe freely, being relieved from this schoolmaster? It is true that he was harsh to none of us, but I perceive that he tacitly condemns us.—This is what is said of a good man. But in our own case how many other things are there for which there are many who wish to get rid of us.
X, 6
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
Contexte: By remembering then that I am a part of such a whole, I shall be content with everything that happens. And inasmuch as I am in a manner intimately related to the parts which are of the same kind with myself, I shall do nothing unsocial, but I shall rather direct myself to the things which are of the same kind with myself, and I shall turn all my efforts to the common interest, and divert them from the contrary.
“In contemplating thyself never include the vessel”
X, 38
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
Contexte: In contemplating thyself never include the vessel which surrounds thee, and these instruments which are attached about it. For they are like an ax, differing only in this, that they grow to the body. For indeed there is no more use in these parts without the cause which moves and checks them than in the weaver's shuttle, and the writer's pen, and the driver's whip.
And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.
X, 14
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
XII, 30
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XII
Contexte: Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and infinite other things. There is one common substance, though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among several natures and individual limitations. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.
“Let the wrong which is done by a man stay there where the wrong was done.”
VII, 29
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Contexte: 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.
“Continuously thou wilt look at human things as smoke and nothing at all”
X, 31
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
Contexte: Continuously thou wilt look at human things as smoke and nothing at all; especially if thou reflectest at the same time, that what has once changed will never exist again in the infinite duration of time. But thou, in what a brief space of time is thy existence? And why art thou not content to pass through this short time in an orderly way?
IX, 31
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX
Contexte: 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.
VII, 50
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Contexte: 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.
“Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.”
VII, 30
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Contexte: Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and the things which do them.
“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”
Source: Meditations
“Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.”
IV, 41
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
“Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.”
Source: Meditations
“What we do now echoes in eternity.”
Source: Meditations
“For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.”
Source: Meditations
“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.”
Source: Meditations
“Receive without conceit, release without struggle.”
Source: Meditations
“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”
Source: Meditations
“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”
Source: Meditations
