Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Marcus Aurelius: Of everything therefore thou must use…
Of everything therefore thou must use thyself to say, This immediately comes from God, this by that fatal connection, and concatenation of things, or (which almost comes to one) by some coincidental casualty.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Meditations. The reading beside it is ours.
Life does not hand us events with a personal note attached. Some things come through causes we can trace; others arrive through chance, timing, biology, or systems larger than us. The useful response is the same: meet what happened without treating it as a private insult from the universe. Your flight is canceled, a project is cut, someone gets sick, or a plan falls apart. You can investigate, adapt, and grieve when necessary. But resentment adds nothing to the facts. Marcus’s reminder is a way to stop arguing with the existence of reality. Say: this is part of how life unfolds; now what does good judgment require of me? Acceptance is not approval. It is the starting point for an effective response.
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