| # Meditations - Selected Passages |
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| By Marcus Aurelius |
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| Public-domain source text: |
| Project Gutenberg, `Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus`. |
| Source URL omitted so this fixture stays self-contained. |
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| Translation note: |
| George W. Chrystal's 1902 rendering, based on the Foulis translation of 1742. |
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| This file is a manually curated, sectional markdown excerpt for extraction and |
| formatting tests. |
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| ## Book II |
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| ### On Meeting Difficult People |
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| > Say this to yourself in the morning: Today I shall have to do with meddlers, |
| > with the ungrateful, with the insolent, with the crafty, with the envious and |
| > the selfish. |
| > |
| > All these vices have beset them, because they know not what is good and what |
| > is evil. |
| > |
| > I cannot be angry with my brother, or sever myself from him, for we are made |
| > by nature for mutual assistance, like the feet, the hands, the eyelids, the |
| > upper and lower rows of teeth. |
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| Source: section 1 |
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| ### On Action and Character |
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| > Hourly and earnestly strive, as a Roman and a man, to do what falls to your |
| > hand with perfect unaffected dignity, with kindliness, freedom and justice, |
| > and free your soul from every other imagination. |
| > |
| > This you will accomplish if you perform each action as if it were your last, |
| > without wilfulness, or any passionate aversion to what reason approves; |
| > without hypocrisy or selfishness, or discontent with the decrees of |
| > Providence. |
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| Source: section 5 |
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| ### On Focusing Your Mind |
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| > Cares from without distract you: take leisure, then, to add some good thing |
| > to your knowledge; have done with vacillation, and avoid the other error. |
| > |
| > For triflers, too, are they who, by their activities, weary themselves in |
| > life, and have no settled aim to which they may direct, once and for all, |
| > their every desire and project. |
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| Source: section 7 |
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| ### On Looking Inward |
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| > Seldom are any found unhappy from not observing what is in the minds of |
| > others. |
| > |
| > But such as observe not well the stirrings of their own souls must of |
| > necessity be unhappy. |
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| Source: section 8 |
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| ### On Mortality |
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| > The duration of man's life is but an instant; his substance is fleeting, his |
| > senses dull; the structure of his body corruptible; the soul but a vortex. |
| > |
| > In fine, the life of the body is but a river, and the life of the soul a |
| > misty dream. |
| > |
| > Existence is a warfare, and a journey in a strange land; and the end of fame |
| > is to be forgotten. |
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| Source: section 17 |
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| ### On Philosophy |
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| > What then avails to guide us? One thing, and one alone-Philosophy. |
| > |
| > And this consists in keeping the divinity within inviolate and intact; |
| > victorious over pain and pleasure; free from temerity, free from falsehood, |
| > free from hypocrisy; independent of what others do or fail to do. |
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| Source: section 17 |
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| ## Book III |
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| ### On the Present Moment |
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| > Remember also that every man lives only this present moment, which is a |
| > fleeting instant: the rest of time is either spent or quite unknown. |
| > |
| > Short is the time which each of us has to live, and small the corner of the |
| > earth he has to live in. |
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| Source: section 10 |
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| ## Book IV |
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| ### On Simplicity |
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| > Let no action be done at random, nor otherwise than in complete accordance |
| > with the principles involved. |
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| Source: section 2 |
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| ### On Retreat Within Yourself |
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| > Men seek retirement in the country, on the sea-coast, in the mountains; and |
| > you too have frequent longings for such distractions. |
| > |
| > Yet surely this is great folly, since you may retire into yourself at any |
| > hour you please. |
| > |
| > Nowhere can a man find any retreat more quiet and more full of leisure than |
| > in his own soul. |
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| Source: section 3 |
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| ### On Pain and Judgment |
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| > Suppress the thought; and the cry "I am hurt!" is gone. |
| > |
| > Suppress "I am hurt!" and you suppress the injury. |
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| Source: section 7 |
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| ### Curator Note |
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| The excerpt keeps several short passages together so extraction tests can verify |
| headings, block quotes, and ordinary paragraphs in one document. |
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| During review, the archive team marked this paragraph as a parser coverage note |
| because it appears after several nested sections rather than at the top of the |
| file. |
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| ### On Changing Your Mind |
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| > For two things be ever ready: First, to do that only which reason, the |
| > sovereign and legislative faculty, suggests for the good of mankind: |
| > Secondly, to change your course on meeting any one who can correct and alter |
| > your opinion. |
| > |
| > But let the change be made because you really believe it to be in the |
| > interest of justice or the public good, or such like, and not with any view |
| > to pleasure or glory for yourself. |
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| Source: section 12 |
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