Meditations (170-180 AD) | Marcus Aurelius

I was going through some rough times a couple months back and this book helped me go through that period. This is the best piece of literature I read this year. 

 I'm not going to write a summary. Instead I'm merely going to list a couple quotable quotes I'd like to remember.
Book 1 - 4:
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own-not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.
...
So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.
...
Put up with the discomfort, not make demands.
...
To care for all human beings is part of being human. Which doesn't mean we have to share their opinions. 
...
He does only what is his to do, and considers constantly what the world has in store for him-doing his best and trusting that all is for the best. for we carry our fate with us-and it carries us

 Book 5:
At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?'
— But it's nicer in here ...
So you were born to feel 'nice'? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don't you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you're not willing to do your job as a human being?

...
Treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant with others and strict with yourself. Remember nothing belongs to you but your flesh and blood-and nothing else is under your control.
...
I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me.but true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions and good actions.

 Book 6:
To do what we were designed for... Hold on to that, and you won't be tempted to aim at anything else.And if you cant stop prizing a lot of other things? Then you'll never be free- free, independent, imperturbable. because you'll always be envious and jealous, afraid that people might come and take it all away from you. ... People who need those things are bound to be a mess- and bound to take their frustrations on the gods. Whereas to respect your own mind-to prize it-will leave you satisfied with your own self, well integrated into your community and in tune with the gods as well-embracing what they allot you and what they obtain.
...
I am composed of a body and a soul.
Things happen to the body that are meaningless. It cannot discriminate among them. Nothing has meaning to my mind except its own actions. Which are within its own control. and its only the immediate ones that matter. its past and future actions too are meaningless.
...
You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves.

 Book 7:
Treat what you don't have as nonexistent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think how much you'd crave them if you didn't have them. But be careful. Don't feel such satisfaction that you start to overvalue them-that it would upset you to lose them. 
...
Dig deep; the water-goodness-is down there. And as long as you keep digging, it will keep bubbling up.

 Book 9:

Remember: the capacity for patience was given to you for a reason.
...
When you face someones insults, hatred, whatever... Look at his soul. Get inside him. Look at what sort of person he is. You'll find you don't need to strain to impress him.
But you do have to wish him well. He's your closest relative. The gods assist him just as they do you.

 Book 10:
When faced with people's bad behavior, turn around and ask when you have acted like that. when you saw money as a good, or pleasure or social position. Your anger will subside as soon as you recognize that they acted under compulsion. (what else could they do) or remove the compulsion if you can.

 Book 11:
GrapesUnripe... Ripened.. Then raisinsConstant transitionsNot the "not" but the "not yet"
...
We need to master the art of acquiescence. we need to pay attention to our impulses, making sure they don't go unmoderated, that they benefit others, that they're worthy of us. We need to steer clear of desire in any form and try not to avoid what's beyond our control.

 Book 12:
It's all in how you perceive. You are in control. You can dispense with misperception at will, like rounding the point. Serenity, Total calm, Safe anchorage.


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