Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Marcus Aurelius: Will any contemn me? let him look to…
Will any contemn me? let him look to that, upon what grounds he does it: my care shall be that I may never be found either doing or speaking anything that doth truly deserve contempt. Will any hate me? let him look to that.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Meditations. The reading beside it is ours.
Other people's contempt is their decision. Your responsibility is to make sure your conduct does not earn it. That distinction frees you from an impossible job: controlling everyone's opinion. Someone may dislike your boundaries, resent your competence, misunderstand your intentions, or simply be committed to finding fault. You cannot fix that by performing for them. But you can examine your own speech and actions. Were you fair? Were you honest? Did you act from vanity or from principle? If the answer is yes, you have done what belongs to you. If the answer is no, correct it without needing anyone's permission. Do not turn criticism into a verdict on your worth, and do not turn praise into proof of it. Today, put your attention on being respectable in substance. Let the crowd manage its own reactions.
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