Book Two
2:13
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: Begin the morning by saying to yourself I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.
13. Nothing is more wretched than a man who traverses everything in a round, and pries into the things beneath the earth, as the poet says, and seeks by conjecture what is in the minds of his neighbours, without perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the daemon within him, and to reverence it sincerely.
And reverence of the daemon consists in keeping it pure from passion and thoughtlessness, and dissatisfaction with what comes from gods and men.
For the things from the gods merit veneration for their excellence; and the things from men should be dear to us by reason of kinship; and sometimes even, in a manner, they move our pity by reason of men's ignorance of good and bad; this defect being not less than that which deprives us of the power of distinguishing things that are white and black.
Book: Meditations
Subtitle: The classic from Marcus Aurelius.
Author: Marcus Aurelius
Chapter: Book Two
Chapter Subtitle: Begin the morning by saying to yourself I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.
Location: Chapter 2, Section 13
Content:
13. Nothing is more wretched than a man who traverses everything in a round, and pries into the things beneath the earth, as the poet says, and seeks by conjecture what is in the minds of his neighbours, without perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the daemon within him, and to reverence it sincerely.
And reverence of the daemon consists in keeping it pure from passion and thoughtlessness, and dissatisfaction with what comes from gods and men.
For the things from the gods merit veneration for their excellence; and the things from men should be dear to us by reason of kinship; and sometimes even, in a manner, they move our pity by reason of men's ignorance of good and bad; this defect being not less than that which deprives us of the power of distinguishing things that are white and black.