Dalton Hancock’s Reviews > Meditations > Status Update

"[The contemplative man], being himself contented with these two things, with acting justly in what he now does, and being satisfied with what is now assigned to him..."

"No longer talk about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such."

"For she (nature) has given to man, as an antidote against the stupid man, mildness..."

"He who does not know what the world is, does not know where he is. And he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is."

"Wipe out imagination: check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power." How boring!

"Things stand outside of us, themselves by themselves, neither knowing aught of themselves, nor expressing any judgment."

"It is not right to vex ourselves about things, For they care nought about it."

"Is my understanding sufficient for this or not? If it is, I use it for the work as an instrument given by the universal nature.

But if it is not, then either I retire from the work and give way to him who is able to do it better, ...or I do it as well as I can..."

"...and the poor soul itself is an exhalation of blood."
"Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink?"

"What then is about which we ought to employ our serious pains? This one thing, thoughts just, and acts social, and words that never lie, and a disposition which gladly accepts all that happens, as necessary, as usual, as flowing from a principle and source of the same kind."

Think fairly; play well with others; tell the truth; go with the flow.

"The universe is transformation and life is opinion."

If Marcus Aurelius can't ask you, at any given moment, "Whatcha thinking about?" and you can't answer honestly, wyd?

"...and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion."