Saturday, June 13, 2015

Stoic Saturday: Marcus on Proper Thought

Do not waste the remainder of your life in thoughts about others, when you do not refer your thoughts to some object of common utility. For you lose the opportunity of doing something else when you have such thoughts as these. What is such a person doing, and why, and what is he saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of our own ruling power. We ought then to check in the series of our thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of all the overcurious and the malignant; and a man should use himself to think of those things only about which if one should suddenly ask, What are you thinking about? With perfect openness you might immediately answer, this or that; so that from your words it should be plain that everything in you is simple and benevolent, as befits a social animal, one that is unconcerned with pleasure, sensual enjoyments, rivalry, envy, suspicion, or any other thoughts that you would blush to admit. 
Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. New York: Dover Thrift Editions, 1997, 14.

That's from Book III of Marcus's Meditations. The italicized portion is what I copied into my pocket notebook collection of stoicisms. 


No comments:

Post a Comment