Book Seven
7:55
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: What is badness? It is that which you have often seen.
55. Do not look around you to discover other men's ruling principles, but look straight to this, to what nature leads you both the universal nature through the things which happen to you and your own nature through the acts which must be done by you But every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution; and all other things have been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among irrational things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the rational for the sake of one another.
The prime principle then in man's constitution is the social.
And the second is not to yield to the persuasions of the body, for it is the peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the senses or of the appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion claims superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the others.
And with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all of them.
The third thing in the rational constitution is freedom from error and from deception.
Let then the ruling principle holding fast to these things go straight on, and it has what is its own.
Book: Meditations
Subtitle: The classic from Marcus Aurelius.
Author: Marcus Aurelius
Chapter: Book Seven
Chapter Subtitle: What is badness? It is that which you have often seen.
Location: Chapter 7, Section 55
Content:
55. Do not look around you to discover other men's ruling principles, but look straight to this, to what nature leads you both the universal nature through the things which happen to you and your own nature through the acts which must be done by you But every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution; and all other things have been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among irrational things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the rational for the sake of one another.
The prime principle then in man's constitution is the social.
And the second is not to yield to the persuasions of the body, for it is the peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the senses or of the appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion claims superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the others.
And with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all of them.
The third thing in the rational constitution is freedom from error and from deception.
Let then the ruling principle holding fast to these things go straight on, and it has what is its own.