You can choose how to react. You can choose to react peacefully and with kindness. Your kindness will overcome their hostility. Show them where they have gone astray and help them become better. These it is thy duty to observe and without being disturbed or showing anger towards those who are angry with thee to go on thy way and finish that which is set before thee. One thing here is worth a great deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice, with a benevolent disposition even to liars and unjust men.
Whatever any one does or says, I must be good, just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this, Whatever any one does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour. Shall any man hate me? Let him look to it. But I will be mild and benevolent towards every man, and ready to show even him his mistake, not reproachfully, nor yet as making a display of my endurance, but nobly and honestly, Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.
Help them by being kind and by explaining their errors calmly. When someone is against you, they are not hurting you, but only hurting themselves. Consider that a good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine, and not an affected smile and acting a part. For what will the most violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a kind disposition towards him, and if, as opportunity offers, thou gently admonishest him and calmly correctest his errors at the very time when he is trying to do thee harm, saying, Not so, my child: we are constituted by nature for something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but thou art injuring thyself, my child.
And thou must do this neither with any double meaning nor in the way of reproach, but affectionately and without any rancour in thy soul; and not as if thou wert lecturing him, nor yet that any bystander may admire, but either when he is alone, and if others are present. Thou must equally avoid flattering men and being veied at them, for both are unsocial and lead to harm.
If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in is error and ignorance. If it doesn't have a good purpose, then why are you wasting your time with it?
Accordingly on every occasion a man should ask himself, is this one of the unnecessary things? Now a man should take away not only unnecessary acts, but also, unnecessary thoughts, for thus superfluous acts will not follow after.
Be like a river — it flows and follows the least path of resistance. You may not see the big picture at the moment, but is it possible that this thing you dislike could be happening for a purpose to help you?
You are part of something bigger and there is a purpose for what happens to you. Look back on past events that you thought were bad and you can see that they are beneficial to you in some way. And so accept everything which happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity of Zeus the universe.
For he would not have brought on any man what he has brought, if it were not useful for the whole. Do not yield to pain. Pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination.
If you can accept what happens to you, your life will be more peaceful. Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more suitable? An moved to make the universe. But now either everything that takes place comes by way of consequence or continuity; or even the chief things towards which the ruling power of the universe directs its own movement are governed by no rational principle. If this is remembered it will make thee more tranquil in many things.
Accept the fact that you may lose things in your life. Things are constantly changing and will continue to do so more on that later , so accept it. Only attend to thyself, and resolve to be a good man in every act which thou doest: and remember… Look within.
Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig. Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.
Constantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thyself; and let thy principles be brief and fundamental, which, as soon as thou shalt recur to them, will be sufficient to cleanse the soul completely, and to send thee back free from all discontent with the things to which thou returnest. Remember to retire into this little territory of thy own, and above all do not distract or strain thyself, but be free, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal.
Think about pain, pleasure, death, and opinion. Contemplate about how small we are, how vast the universe is, the enormous time scale of the universe, and the small amount of time we have on Earth. Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance, and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a fig, and as to time, the turning of a gimlet. Contemplate the formative principles forms of things bare of their coverings; the purposes of actions; consider what pain is, what pleasure is, and death, and fame; who is to himself the cause of his uneasiness; how no man is hindered by another; that everything is opinion.
Everything is soon forgotten. Reflect on that. See how soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos of infinite time on each side of the present, and the emptiness of applause, and the changeableness and want of judgement in those who pretend to give praise, and the narrowness of the space within which it is circumscribed, and be quiet at last.
For the whole earth is a point, and how small a nook in it is this thy dwelling, and how few are there in it, and what kind of people are they who will praise thee. Bodies disappear and become something else, memories fade, and even those who remember you will soon be gone too.
That is nature, so don't be against it; welcome it. There is nothing wrong with death, only your opinion about it. Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.
Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills. How quickly all things disappear, in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them; waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded.
But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements?
For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature. You have also done many things wrong in your mind , so don't be so fast to pass judgement. If you think someone has done something wrong, think about why you believe it is wrong. Is it really wrong or is that just your opinion of it? Maybe to him it is right. Once you see this, you won't be angry with him.
When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry.
For either thou thyself thinkest the same thing to be good that he does or another thing of the same kind. It is thy duty then to pardon him. But if thou dost not think such things to be good or evil, thou wilt more readily be well disposed to him who is in error. If thou art able, correct by teaching those who do wrong To-day I have got out of all trouble, or rather I have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside, but within and in my opinions.
Resolve to dismiss thy judgement about an act as if it were something grievous, and thy anger is gone. That if men do rightly what they do, we ought not to be displeased; but if they do not right, it is plain that they do so involuntarily and in ignorance. You cannot accurately judge someone unless you are them. All other judgments are biased. Eighth, consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and vexation caused by such acts than by the acts themselves, at which we are angry and vexed.
Why consider the opinion of others who are not even satisfied with themselves? Don't let anyone's hateful actions or words hinder you, but still treat them as friends. Don't try to be a people pleaser because you can't please everyone. Examine your own opinions as well. But as to those who live not so, he always bears in mind what kind of men they are both at home and from home, both by night and by day, and what they are, and with what men they live an impure life.
Accordingly, he does not value at all the praise which comes from such men, since they are not even satisfied with themselves. When another blames thee or hates thee, or when men say about thee anything injurious, approach their poor souls, penetrate within, and see what kind of men they are. Thou wilt discover that there is no reason to take any trouble that these men may have this or that opinion about thee.
However thou must be well disposed towards them, for by nature they are friends. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return.
SUMMARY Make use of whatever opportunity comes your way, because everything — you, me, the opportunity — comes with an expiration date. UNPACKING Marcus starts this chapter off by urging himself to reflect on how often he has been procrastinating, not doing things he should be doing, and how often he has skipped the opportunities given to him by the gods.
Call it what you may — the gods, providence, chance — the fact is that we have all been presented with opportunities that are laid aside in favor of something else.
Perhaps we set it aside because of laziness, or fear. Marcus is saying that we should certainly not do that, especially now that we ken what part we serve in the universe. The previous chapter set this idea forth. Our very existence flows from the existence of this universe. The time we think we have for all eternity is not so. It will stop.
And when it does, and we have not done what was given to us as an opportunity to grasp, we will no longer have the chance again. In all our existence, it is the one thing that is truly finite. Because you exist as part of a much larger whole, whatever selfish desires you have are trivial. Your purpose in life is to do good for others.
You should help others without any thought of reward. If you ever feel reluctant to help others, remember that everything is connected through logos. Therefore, in helping others you also help yourself. How could you ever object to doing something that helps you? To live in a consistent way, you must have a consistent goal.
However, since individual people are so changeable, the only way to have a consistent goal is to work for the good of all people. In other words: You should never take action without a purpose, and that purpose should never be anything except the common good. You could die at any moment. That thought should guide your actions every day.
You can be sure of this because the gods have given you the intelligence, skills, and tools that you need to avoid harm; therefore, if death were harmful, they would have given you a way to avoid it. However, everyone experiences life and death. Therefore, you must conclude that these things are neither good nor bad.
They simply exist. Therefore, worrying about how long your body will endure is a waste of time and energy. Sooner or later each of us will die, and you should face this with quiet dignity, as you would face anything else in life. The question of when it happens is irrelevant. Even the greatest human life is insignificant; peasants and emperors both blow away like smoke on the wind. To live your short life righteously, in accordance with nature and logos , is enough.
Finally, like the curtain coming down at the end of a play, death will eventually come for each of us. Therefore, like an actor bows and leaves the stage at her appointed time, leave this world with humility and grace—the same grace that you received all throughout your life.
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Milton Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom Theories.
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