Book Twelve
12:3
Book Subtitle: The classic from Marcus Aurelius.
Book Description: The personal notes of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
This book has influenced many throughout history from students to statesmen. It's an inside look at a brilliant and thoughtful man working on living well.
The emperor and philosopher's thoughts are crucial to understand for any Stoic seeking to do their best in a complex world.
Chapter Subtitle: All those things at which you wish to arrive by a circuitous road, you canst have now, if you dost not refuse them to yourself
3. The things are three of which you are composed, a little body, a little breath (life), intelligence.
Of these the first two are yours so far as it is your duty to take care of them; but the third alone is properly yours Therefore if you shall separate from yourself that is, from your understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever you have done or said yourself and whatever future things trouble you because they may happen, and whatever in the body which envelops you or in the breath (life), which is by nature associated with the body, is attached to you independent of your will, and whatever the external circumfluent vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power exempt from the things of fate can live pure and free by itself, doing what is just and accepting what happens and saying the truth: if you will separate, I say, from this ruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is past, and will make yourself like Empedocles' sphere, All round, and in its joyous rest reposing; and if you shall strive to live only what is really your life, that is, the present- then you will be able to pass that portion of life which remains for you up to the time of your death, free from perturbations, nobly, and obedient to your own daemon (to the god that is within you).
Book: Meditations
Subtitle: The classic from Marcus Aurelius.
Author: Marcus Aurelius
Chapter: Book Twelve
Chapter Subtitle: All those things at which you wish to arrive by a circuitous road, you canst have now, if you dost not refuse them to yourself
Location: Chapter 12, Section 3
Content:
3. The things are three of which you are composed, a little body, a little breath (life), intelligence.
Of these the first two are yours so far as it is your duty to take care of them; but the third alone is properly yours Therefore if you shall separate from yourself that is, from your understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever you have done or said yourself and whatever future things trouble you because they may happen, and whatever in the body which envelops you or in the breath (life), which is by nature associated with the body, is attached to you independent of your will, and whatever the external circumfluent vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power exempt from the things of fate can live pure and free by itself, doing what is just and accepting what happens and saying the truth: if you will separate, I say, from this ruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is past, and will make yourself like Empedocles' sphere, All round, and in its joyous rest reposing; and if you shall strive to live only what is really your life, that is, the present- then you will be able to pass that portion of life which remains for you up to the time of your death, free from perturbations, nobly, and obedient to your own daemon (to the god that is within you).