Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

  • Meditations: Book 2:1: "We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows up..."
  • Meditations: Book 4:29: "If one does not recognize the contents of the universe is a stranger in it,..."
  • Meditations: Book 4:3.b: "Revisit the alternatives -- providence or atoms -- and the many indications that the universe..."
  • Meditations: Book 4:33: "So where should a man direct his endeavor?  Here only -- a right mind, action..."
  • Meditations: Book 4:40: "Think always of the universe as one living creature, comprising one substance and one soul:..."
  • Meditations: Book 5:16: "Each creature is made in the interest of another; its course is directed to that..."
  • Meditations: Book 7:22: "It is human nature to love even those who trip and fall.  This follows if..."
  • Meditations: Book 7:48: "When your talk is about mankind, view earthly things as if looking down on them..."
  • Meditations: Book 7:55: "Every creature must do what follows from its own constitution.  The rest of creation is..."

Although he was a Roman, Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Greek. He meant them as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement, never intended for publication. Large portions of the work may have been written while on military campaigns between 170 and 180 AD.