Having just finished reading Marcus Aurelius'Meditations, I wanted to share some quotes. Of course, not everything he wrote cut the mustard (he was a Stoic, after all), but these gems certainly do:
If to your benefit as a rational being, adopt it: but if simply to your benefit as an animal, reject it, and stick to your judgment without fanfare. Only make that your scrutiny is sound. [Book 3, 6]
No action should be undertaken without aim, or other than in conformity with a principle affirming the art of life. [Book 4, 2]
If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance. [Book 6, 21]
How cruel it is not to allow people to strive for what seems to them their interest and advantage! [Book 6,27]
Whenever you want to cheer yourself, think of the qualities of your fellows - the energy of one, for example, the decency of another, the generosity of a third, some other merit in a fourth. There is nothing so cheering as the stamp of virtues manifest in the character of colleagues - and the greater the collective incidence, the better. So keep them ready to hand. [Book 6, 48]
Just as you are content with amount of matter allocated to you, so you should be content with your allocation of time [Book 6, 49]
How to understand your own good: the lover of glory takes it to be the reaction of others; the lover of pleasure takes it to be his own passive experience; the intelligent man sees it as his own action. [Book 6, 51]
On death. Either dispersal, if we are atoms; or, if we are a unity, extinction or a change of home. [Book 7, 32]
On pain. Unbearable pain carries us off: chronic pain can be borne. The mind preserves its own serenity by withdrawal, and the directing reason is not impaired by pain. It is for the parts injured by the pain to protest if they can. [Book 7, 33]
Dig inside yourself. Inside there is a spring of goodness ready to gush at any moment, if you keep digging. [Book 7, 59]
Constantly test your mental impressions - each one individually, if you can: investigate the cause, identify the emotion, apply the analysis of logic. [Book 8, 13]
An obstacle to sense perception is harmful to animal nature. An obstacle to impulse is likewise harmful to animal nature. It follows that an obstacle to the mind is harmful to intelligent nature. [Book 8, 41]
If you can, show them the better way. If you cannot, remember that this is why you have the gift of kindness. [Book 9, 11]
Particular qualities too of the rational soul are love of neighbor, truthfulness, integrity, no higher value than itself. This last is a defining quality of law also. There is thus no difference between the true principle of philosophy and the principle of justice. [Book 11, 3] [note: "love of" in the sense used here is that of Agape, which means, properly translated, "good will toward"]
What is your profession? Being a good man. But this can only come about through philosophic concepts - concepts of the nature of the Whole, and concepts of the specific constitution of man. [Book 11, 5]
'No nature is inferior to art': in fact the arts imitate the variety of natures. [Book 11, 10]
Someone despises me? That is his concern. But I will see to it that I am not found guilty of any word or action deserving contempt. Will he hate me? That is his concern. But I will be kind and well-intentioned to all, and ready to show this very person what he is failing to see - not in any criticism or display of tolerance, but with genuine good will. [Book 11, 13]
Socrates used to question thus. 'What do you want to have? The souls of rational or irrational beings? 'Rational.""What sort of rational beings? The pure or the lower?""The pure.""Why then don't you aim for that?""Because we have it.""Why then your fighting and disagreements?" [Book 11, 39]
The light of a lamp shines on and does not lose its radiance until it is extinguished. Will then the truth, justice, and self-control which fuel you fail before your own end? [Book 12, 15]
If only today's leaders would think and act in the same spirit! As individuals we certainly can, and if not become leaders ourselves, help light the torch of others who may.