Status Updates From Marcus Aurelius – Meditatio...

He jus be thinkin

Focus on what’s in front of you, regardless of whether it’s a situation, an action, doctrine, or the words that make that doctrine up. (And, yes, you do deserve what you are suffering — you are the one who keeps pushing the pursuit of good personhood back from today to tomorrow.)

Focus only on your thoughts and yourself, not on other people around you that you cannot control.

“Do not waste the remaining part of your life in thoughts about other people, when you are not thinking with reference to some aspect of the common good.”

“Hippocrates cured many diseases then died of disease himself. The Chaldean astrologers foretold the deaths of many people, then their own fated day claimed them. Alexander, Pompey, Julius Caesar annihilated whole cities time after time, and slaughtered tens of thousands of horse and foot in the field of battle, and yet the moment came for them too to depart this life.”

“We must take into our reckoning not only that life is expended day by day and the remaining balance diminishes, but also this further consideration: if we live longer, there is no guarantee that our mind will likewise retain that power to comprehend and study the world which contributes to our experience of things divine and human.”