Meditations

✅ Marcus believed that we were made not for ourselves but for others, and our nature is fundamentally unselfish. ✅ Don’t settle for getting “the gist of it.” Fully understand anything you’re interested in. ✅ Humans were born to work together like feet, hands, eyes, and the two rows of teeth. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions. ✅ If you don’t have a consistent goal, you won’t have a consistent life. Choose something to put all your energy into and you will be successful. The hardest worker in the world who doesn’t have a purpose or goal is useless. ✅ If you’re ever lazy, think: “The bees and ants never stop working, so why should I?” If you find it hard to get out of bed, think: “Even animals can get out of bed,” then get up and start the day. ✅ There isn’t anything you can do to prevent nature from continuing its course. The best thing you can do is accept what happens that you can’t control. There is no use getting frustrated by what you can’t control. ✅ We are getting closer to death every day, so stop wasting time. ✅ Do what’s right, accept what happens, and speak the truth. At some point, recognize what world you belong to, what power rules it, and from what source you spring. There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself, it will be gone and never return. People who work hard but don’t have a purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time. The present is the same for everyone, and its loss is the same for everyone. “Everything is just an impression” means reality is influenced by your thoughts, emotions, and interpretations, not objective truth. Treat your ability to control your thoughts with respect. We are getting closer and closer to death every day, so don’t waste time doing unnecessary things. Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been. It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you, inside or out. Don’t live as if you have endless years in front of you. The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving small things more time than they deserve. Plants, birds, ants, and bees are always doing their tasks. They are never lazy, so why should you be? If you get injured or have a health problem, that is nature’s way of making the world a better place. We are a small freckle in the universe. If someone has bad breath, tell them. They probably don’t know. Don’t let others hold you back. If something bad happens, so what? It was meant to happen by nature. It’s only bad if you’re the one doing the bad thing. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions. Whatever happens to you is for the good of the world. Whatever happens that you can’t control is done by God, and God doesn’t make bad decisions. It doesn’t bother you that you weigh only x or y pounds and not three hundred. Why should it bother you that you only have x or y years to live and not more? You accept the limits placed on your body. Accept those placed on your time. Our worth is determined by what we devote our energy to. Is it not possible that a real man should forget about living a certain number of years and should not cling to life, but leave it up to the gods, accepting that “no one can escape his fate,” and turn his attention to how he can live the life before him? Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Your intentions and actions should be governed by first principles. There is nothing good except what leads to fairness, self-control, courage, and free will. And nothing bad except what does the opposite. First step: don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all. Second step: concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it, do it without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being. When you have trouble getting out of bed, remember you were born to work with others. Even animals know how to sleep, so get up and start the day. Our happiness lies in us, not in someone else. It’s a decision to be happy. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness. Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both your existence and the things that happen to you together. Ask yourself: “What am I afraid of death for? What will I miss the most?” Then do more of that. “If you don’t have a consistent goal in life, you can’t live it in a consistent way.” There is no common benchmark for all the things people think are good, except a few that affect us all. So the goal should be a common one, a civic one. If you direct all your energies toward that, your actions will be consistent. And so will you. If you took the long way around, you would’ve already had what you wanted. Doing what’s right, accepting what happens, and speaking the truth helps you concentrate on living in the present. Make your exit with grace, the same grace shown to you.