Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Marcus Aurelius: What use is there of suspicion at all?…
What use is there of suspicion at all? or, why should thoughts of mistrust, and suspicion concerning that which is future, trouble thy mind at all? What now is to be done, if thou mayest search and inquiry into that, what needs thou care for more?
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Meditations. The reading beside it is ours.
Suspicion likes to dress up as preparation. We replay what a manager might say, imagine a partner’s hidden motive, and forecast disasters that have not occurred. It feels responsible because the mind is busy. But it is usually just borrowing pain from a future we cannot inspect. Marcus brings us back to a practical boundary: what is there to do now? If you can verify something, verify it. If you need to prepare, prepare. If there is a conversation to have, have it directly. Beyond that, mistrust is not insight; it is mental clutter. The future will bring information when it arrives, and you will meet it with the resources available then. Today, notice one fearful prediction. Separate the evidence from the story, act on any real evidence, and refuse to keep rehearsing the rest.
Related passages
- Marcus Aurelius Add nothing beyond the first report. Someone speaks badly of you; that is all reported, not that you are harmed. A…
- Marcus Aurelius As every fancy and imagination presents itself unto thee, consider (if it be possible) the true nature, and the proper…
- Marcus Aurelius Behold and observe, what is the state of their rational part; and those that the world doth account wise, see what…