Marcus Aurelius Μᾶρκος Αὐρήλιος

170s

Say to yourself at daybreak: today I shall meet the meddler, the ungrateful, the insolent, the deceitful, the envious, the unsociable.

Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ· συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ

Meditations 2.1

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170s

At dawn, when you are reluctant to get up, have this thought ready: I am rising to do the work of a human being. Why then do I grumble, if I am going to do what I was born for, what I was brought into the world to do? Or was I made for this, to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm?

Ὄρθρου, ὅταν δυσόκνως ἐξεγείρῃ, πρόχειρον ἔστω ὅτι ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπου ἔργον ἐγείρομαι· τί οὖν δυσκολαίνω, εἰ πορεύομαι ἐπὶ τὸ ποιεῖν ὧν ἕνεκεν γέγονα καὶ ὧν χάριν προῆγμαι εἰς τὸν κόσμον; ἢ ἐπὶ τοῦτο κατεσκεύασμαι, ἵνα κατακείμενος ἐν στρωματίοις ἐμαυτὸν θάλπω

Meditations 5.1

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170s

How much free time he gains who does not look at what his neighbour has said or done or thought, but only at what he himself is doing.

Ὅσην εὐσχολίαν κερδαίνει ὁ μὴ βλέπων τί ὁ πλησίον εἶπεν ἢ ἔπραξεν ἢ διενοήθη, ἀλλὰ μόνον τί αὐτὸς ποιεῖ

Meditations 4.18

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170s

Near is your forgetting of all things; near, too, the forgetting of you by all.

Ἐγγὺς μὲν ἡ σὴ περὶ πάντων λήθη, ἐγγὺς δὲ ἡ πάντων περὶ σοῦ λήθη.

Meditations 7.21

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170s

No more arguing about what a good man is like. Be one.

περὶ τοῦ οἷόν τινα εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα διαλέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ εἶναι τοιοῦτον.

Meditations 10.16

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