Monday 24 September 2007

For no one can fix on me what is ugly


A Thought for the Day
-From
The Meditations
Of
Marcus Aurelius

-

Begin the morning by saying to yourself:

-

I shall meet with the busy-body
-
The ungrateful
-
The arrogant
-
The deceitful
-
The envious
-
And
The
Unsocial
-
All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance
-
Of
What is good
And
Evil
-
But I
-
Who have seen the nature of the good
-
That it is beautiful
-
And of the bad
-
That it is ugly
-
And the nature of him who does wrong
-
That it is
-
Akin to me
-
Not only of the same blood or seed
-
But that it participates in the same intelligence
-
And the same portion of the divinity
-
I can neither be injured by any of them

-

For no one can fix on me
-
What is ugly
-
Nor can I be angry
-
With my kinsman
-
Nor hate him
-
For we are made for co-operation
-
Like feet
Like hands
Like eyelids
-
Like the rows of the upper and lower teeth
-
To act against one another then
-
Is
Contrary to nature
-
And
It is acting against one another
-
To be vexed
-
And
To turn
Away

-




Marcus Aurelius Antonius Augustus

Roman Emperor

160 t0 180 AD

-

And Still So True

6 comments:

I, Like The View said...

that is so true

wonderful

amazing how little we change over the centuries really, isn't it - a humbling thought

thanks egal..

Egal Bohen said...

i,ltv,

Thanks

But please don't thank me -

Marcus Aurelius is a genius so far as behaviour is concerned - he has been my favoured mentor for many years now but still find it difficult to put his wisdom into practice sometimes.

(I keep finding myself reverting to more neanderthal responses!)

He was a very astute, understanding person - have you read his Meditations?

If not there is a link in his name

Egal..

I, Like The View said...

I will do

and I do thank you

;-)

Mel said...

Wow.

Well, that put me right to size.

*hanging head*

Humbled again.

Egal Bohen said...

No Mel,not humbled, revered.

Egal..

Kathryn said...

I recently picked up a copy of his Meditations at random from the local bookshop. It quickly became one of my favorite books. What an amazing man he must have been.