At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
—But it’s nicer here… .
So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
—But we have to sleep sometime… .
Agreed. But nature set a limit on that—as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota.
You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for the dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.
Is helping others less valuable to you? Not worth your effort?
- Man is a lazy being. It is easy to be lazy (as in slothful and not diligent). Thus, naturally love and obsess over one’s work, without concern for what others think. Follow your nature and let Nature run its course.
If it be right and honest to be spoken or done, undervalue not thyself so much as to be discouraged from it. As for them, they have their own rational over-ruling part and their own proper inclination—which thou must not stand and look about to take notice of, but go on straight
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At the same time, take to heart that you have many possibilities ahead of you. Work on yourself. Flaws are not something to be ignored or valued. Imagine yourself if you did work on yourself, and contrast that with how you are now.
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Help others unconsciously, lest you seek something in return from them.
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What happens to each of us is ordered. It furthers our destiny. Accept what nature prescribes as it is towards the good health of the world.
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Be mindful of your own particulars and dispositions in the moment (see more here).
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Things that are unnatural of us are not expected from us by Nature. The more we deny ourselves such things, the better we become.
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts 1 2
To desire things impossible is the part of a mad man. But it is a thing impossible, that wicked man should not commit some such things. […] is it not a grievous thing that either ignorance or a vain desire to please and to be condemned should be more powerful and effectual than true prudence.
Our actions may be impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.
The impediment to action advances action
What stands in the way becomes the way.
- Recognize the power or spirit that is within you and which governs, alongside Fate, life itself.
Honor that which is greatest in the world—that on whose business all things are employed and by whom they are governed.
And honor what is greatest in yourself: the part that shares its nature with that power. All things—in you as well—are employed about its business, and your life is governed by it.
- What does not harm the whole cannot harm the parts 3
- Remember: All things are transient. The Universe is in flux
It would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress. Or any indignation either. As if the things that irritate us lasted […] So other people hurt me? That’s their problem. Their character and actions are not mine. What is done to me is ordained by nature, what I do by my own.
- Remember: Don’t let physical sensations cloud your judgments.
- Do what you ought to do without minding how others think or how Nature runs its course with it. In the end, if you have lived a life of virtue, you will look back fondly on your experiences.
What is it that thou dost stay for? An extinction or a metamorphism; either of them with a propitious and contented mind .But still that time come, what will content thee? What else but to worship and praise the Gods; and to do good unto men. To bear with them, and to forbear to do them any wrong. And for all external things belonging either to this thy wretched body or life, to remember that they are neither thine, nor in thy power.
- Two things shared by gods and rational men:
- Not letting others hold them back.
- Locate goodness in thinking and doing the right thing, and to limit desires to that.
Soon you’ll be ashes or bones. A mere name at most—and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, trivial
For he is a happy man, who in his lifetime dealeth unto himself a happy lot and portion. A happy lot and portion is, good inclination of the soul, good desires, good actions.
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Footnotes
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Aurelius argues that a thing’s goal is what benefits it, but this presupposes perfect information. What it aims for may not entirely be for its good because of deception. ↩
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Not necessarily true. For example a disease does not harm the community, but it can harm the afflicted. That said, for most social-context cases, this is true. If the culture and milieu are not affected, then neither should you be unless you are a deviant of the community in terms of values. ↩