HKB
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Often appears with: will, choice, and freedom · temperance and self-mastery · pleasure, pain, and the good life · what makes people happy · virtue and progress · syllogisms as misdirected · self-governance · reason and serenity · rational order · prudence and practical wisdom · providence and divine governance · providence
Usually: exhortation (5) · reflection (3) · argument (2) · temptation (2) · confronting death (1) · censure (1) · detachment (1) · resignation (1) · wonder (1)
“If there is no Providence which governs the world, man has at least the power of governing himself according to the constitution of his nature; and so he may be tranquil if he does the best that he can.” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · insight
“Throw away the thought, How thou shall seem [to others], and be content if thou shalt live the rest of thy life in such wise as thy nature wills.” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · precept
“A live coal placed next a dead one will either kindle that or be quenched by it.” Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of Cl · vivid
The author argues that a person becomes tranquil by rejecting the idea that governing aims lack rational order and instead trusting in Providence or, failing that, governing oneself by human nature.
nature of a supreme power, whose existence Antoninus always assumes. The tranquillity that a man may gain from these reflections must result from his rejecting the second hypothesis and accepting the first--whatever may be the exact sense in which the emperor understood the first. Or, as he says elsewhere, if there is no Providence which governs the world, man has at least the power of governi…
Marcus Aurelius teaches that pain is only evil to body or soul depending on judgment, urges wiping out harmful impressions, and insists that reason can stay tranquil even amid suffering and death.
another opportunity of action is immediately put before thee in place of that which was hindered, and one which will adapt itself to this ordering of which we are speaking. 33. Receive [wealth or prosperity] without arrogance; and be ready to let it go. 34. If thou didst ever see a hand cut off, or a foot, or a head, lying anywhere apart from the rest of the body, such does a man make himself, as far as he can, who…
Epictetus contrasts his own tranquility with others’ anxiety about Caesar, urges satisfaction over insatiable desire, praises forgiveness, and insists that wrongdoing by a brother cannot prevent one from acting rightly.
“My brother ought not to have treated me thus.” True: but *he* must see to that. However he may treat me, I must deal rightly by him. This is what lies with me, what none can hinder. XCVIII Nevertheless a man should also be prepared to be sufficient unto himself—to dwell with himself alone, even as God dwells with Himself alone, shares His repose with none, and considers the nature of His own administration, inten…
Epictetus derives moral progress from virtue: happiness comes from not getting what you desire and not falling into what you avoid, so improvement should focus on desire, aversion, pursuit, avoidance, and assent.
and malignant man than a fox, or some other more wretched and meaner animal? See then and take care that you do not become some one of these miserable things. OF PROGRESS OR IMPROVEMENT.—He who is making progress, having learned from philosophers that desire means the desire of good things, and aversion means aversion from bad things; having learned too that happiness and tranquillity are not attainable by man other…
He says philosophers must first learn what to guard and what makes people happy, then suggests that mere syllogistic proving leaves one trembling, consulting others, and suffering from neglected principles.
KNOW THYSELF. 1. If a man have any advantage over others, or thinks himself to have it when he hath it not, it cannot but be that if he is an untaught man he shall be puffed up by it. Thus the tyrant says, _I am he that is master of all_. And what can you give me? Can you set my pursuit free of all hindrance? How is it in you to do that? For have you the gift of never falling into what you shun? or never missing the…