Snippets from the Handbook 2

Things in our power are by nature free, unhindered, untrammeled; things not in our power are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, dependent on others. 

Remember then that if you imagine that what is naturally slavish is free, and what is naturally another's is your own, you will be hampered, you will mourn, you will be put to confusion, you will blame gods and men. 

But if you think that only your own belongs to you, and that what is another's is indeed another's, no one will ever put compulsion or hindrance on you, you will blame none, you will accuse none, you will do nothing against your will, no one will harm you, you will have no enemy, for no harm can touch you. 

—Epictetus, The Handbook 1 

Snippets from the Handbook 1

Of all existing things, some are in our power, and others are not in our power. 

In our power are thought, impulse, will to get and will to avoid, and, in a word, everything which is our own doing. 

Things not in our power include the body, property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything which is not our own doing. 

—Epictetus, The Handbook 1 

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Man, you have been a citizen in this great state; what difference does it make to you whether for five years or for three? For that which is conformable to the laws is just for all. 

Where is the hardship then, if no tyrant nor yet an unjust judge sends you away from the state, but Nature, who brought you into it? 

The same as if a praetor who has employed an actor dismisses him from the stage. 

"But I have not finished the five acts, but only three of them!"

You say it well, but in life the three acts are the whole drama; for what shall be a complete drama is determined by him who was once the cause of its composition, and now of its dissolution: but you are the cause of neither. 

Depart then satisfied, for he also who releases you is satisfied. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.36 

IMAGE: Gustave Moreau, The Young Man and Death (1865) 

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How does the ruling faculty make use of itself? For all lies in this. 

But everything else, whether it is in the power of your will or not, is only lifeless ashes and smoke. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.33 

IMAGE: David Roberts, The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem (1850) 

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How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man, for it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal! 

And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the Universal Soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth you creep! 

Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as your nature leads you, and to endure that which the Common Nature brings. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.32 

IMAGE: Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis, Eternity (1906) 

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The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all your soul to do justice and to say the truth. 

What remains, except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another, so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.29 

IMAGE: Nicolas Beatrizet, The Triumph of Marcus Aurelius (1550) 

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To those who ask, where have you seen the gods, or how do you comprehend that they exist and so worship them, I answer, in the first place, they may be seen even with the eyes. 

In the second place, neither have I seen even my own soul, and yet I honor it. 

Thus then with respect to the gods, from what I constantly experience of their power, from this I comprehend that they exist, and I venerate them. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.28 

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Cast away opinion: you are saved. 

Who then hinders you from casting it away? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.25 

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Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in your power. 

Take away, then, when you choose your opinion, and like a mariner who has doubled the promontory, you will find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.22 

IMAGE: William Bradford, A Sunset Calm in the Bay of Fundy (1860) 

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Consider that before long you will be nobody and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist which you now see, nor any of those who are now living. 

For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned and to perish, in order that other things in continuous succession may exist. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.21 

IMAGE: Piero del Pollaiuolo, Apollo and Daphne (c. 1480) 

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First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a purpose. 

Second, make your acts refer to nothing else than to a social end. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.20 

IMAGE: Rembrandt, The Night Watch (1642) 

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Perceive at last that you have in you something better and more divine than the things which cause the various affects, and, as it were, pull you by the strings. 

What is there now in my mind—is it fear, or suspicion, or desire, or anything of the kind? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.19 

 

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When a man has presented the appearance of having done wrong, say this: 

How then do I know if this is a wrongful act? And even if he has done wrong, how do I know that he has not condemned himself? And so this is like tearing his own face. 

Consider that he who would not have the bad man do wrong, is like the man who would not have the fig tree to bear juice in the figs, and infants to cry, and the horse to neigh, and whatever else must of necessity be. 

For what must a man do who has such a character? If then you are irritable, cure this man's disposition. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.16 

IMAGE: Sofonisba Anguissola, Child Bitten by a Lobster (c. 1554) 

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Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendor until it is extinguished? 

And shall the truth which is in you and justice and temperance be extinguished before your death? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.15 

IMAGE: Gerrit Dou, A Hermit (c. 1661) 

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Either there is a fatal necessity and invincible order, or a kind Providence, or a confusion without a purpose and without a director. 

If then there is an invincible necessity, why do you resist? 

But if there is a Providence which allows itself to be propitiated, make yourself worthy of the help of the Divinity. 

But if there is a confusion without a governor, be content that in such a tempest you have in yourself a certain ruling intelligence. 

And even if the tempest carries you away, let it carry away the poor flesh, the poor breath, everything else; for the intelligence at least it will not carry away. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.14 

IMAGE: Francisco Bayeu, Providence Presiding over the Virtues and Faculties of Men (c. 1780) 

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How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything which happens in life. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.13 

IMAGE: Henri Rousseau, Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) (1891) 

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With respect to that which happens conformably to Nature, we ought to blame neither gods, for they do nothing wrong either voluntarily or involuntarily, nor men, for they do nothing wrong except involuntarily. Consequently we should blame nobody. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.12 

IMAGE: Johann Rudolf Byss, The Feast of the Gods (1734) 

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What a power man has to do nothing except what God will approve, and to accept all that God may give him. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.11 

IMAGE: Pietro da Cortona, The Triumph of Divine Providence (1633) 

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See what things are in themselves, dividing them into matter, form, and purpose. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.10 

IMAGE: James Tissot, The Creation (c. 1900) 

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In the application of your principles you must be like the pancratiast, not like the gladiator; for the gladiator lets fall the sword which he uses and is killed; but the other always has his hand, and needs to do nothing else than use it. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.9