Your commonplace book

III

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. …

Opening of the section. The full text is longer.

Meditations IV.III · trans. Long, 1862

Our note

The most anthologised passage in the book, and the one most often read as an endorsement of solitude. It is the opposite: an argument that the retreat you keep planning is a way of postponing the work.

Discussed in Marcus Aurelius never meant for you to read this

Your note

VII

Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, "I have been harmed." Take away the complaint, "I have been harmed," and the harm is taken away.

Meditations IV.VII · trans. Long, 1862

Our note

The discipline of assent in three clauses. Whether the move survives an actual injury is the argument the objections series keeps having.

Discussed in The discipline of assent, without the jargon

Your note

XVII

Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

Meditations IV.XVII · trans. Long, 1862

Our note

Marcus's other memento mori, and the one readers usually believe they are quoting when they are quoting II.11. That one governs what you do, say, and think. This one only sets the deadline.

Your note

Extracts, in the order you took them.

What you kept.

For later

Marcus Aurelius never meant for you to read this

The discipline of assent, without the jargon

Is Stoicism just emotional suppression in a toga?

Hays, Long, Hard: three Meditations compared

The Stoics were wrong about grief

What a Roman morning actually looked like