Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Marcus Aurelius: The end and object of a rational…
The end and object of a rational constitution is, to do nothing rashly, to be kindly affected towards men, and in all things willingly to submit unto the gods. Casting therefore all other things aside, keep thyself to these few, and remember withal that no man properly can be said to live more than that which is now present, which is but a moment of time.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Meditations. The reading beside it is ours.
The job of a rational person is surprisingly simple: do not rush, treat people with goodwill, accept reality, and stay with the present moment. Most of our distress comes from abandoning one of these rules. We fire off the angry email, make assumptions about someone’s motives, fight facts we cannot change, or spend the afternoon rehearsing a future that may never arrive. Marcus is not asking us to become passive. He is asking us to put our energy where it has leverage: our judgment, our conduct, and the work immediately in front of us. The present is small, but it is the only place character can be practiced. Today, slow down before reacting, be generous in one difficult interaction, and return your attention to what is actually here.
Related passages
- Marcus Aurelius Is it not a cruel thing to forbid men to affect those things, which they conceive to agree best with their own…
- Marcus Aurelius To them that are sick of the jaundice, honey seems bitter; and to them that are bitten by a mad dog, the water…
- Marcus Aurelius Ever consider and think upon the world as being but one living substance, and having but one soul, and how all things…