Meditations
12 books, 487 chapters in Long (17/17/16/51/36/59/75/61/42/38/39/36)
The Meditations are the notes Marcus Aurelius wrote for himself in Greek, in twelve books, during the last years of his reign; the text has no title of his own. Book I is a list of debts, to his grandfather, his father, his mother and his teachers, one chapter each. The eleven books that follow are chapters of unequal length, a sentence or a page, without order or argument from one to the next.
George Long’s translation of 1862 is the English text used here. Long keeps the division into twelve books and the chapter numbering, so every chapter has a fixed address, Meditations, IV, 3, which is what the app prints under each passage. The 487 chapters are counted from his text: 17, 17, 16, 51, 36, 59, 75, 61, 42, 38, 39 and 36. Each book has its page, from Book I to Book XII, and each chapter that the app carries has its own, with Long’s text in full and the French translations beside it.
In the edition of George Long, 1862
Examine men's ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of things they avoid, and what kind they pursue.
Look within. Let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its value escape thee.
No man will hinder thee from living according to the reason of thy own nature: nothing will happen to thee contrary to the reason of the universal nature.
To the rational animal the same act is according to nature and according to reason.
Repentance is a kind of self-reproof for having neglected something useful; but that which is good must be something useful, and the perfect good man should look after it.
Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects thy error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error.
In Stoïque: the 166 passages of this work, free, each with its reference.
The twelve books
Quote check
- Paraphrase“Everything we hear is an opinion”: Marcus Aurelius?
- Paraphrase“The quality of your thoughts”: did Marcus Aurelius say it?
- Not found“You have power over your mind”: not in the Meditations
- Misattributed“It is not death that a man should fear”: George Long, 1862
- Paraphrase“The obstacle is the way”: paraphrase of Meditations, V, 20
- Paraphrase“Our life is what our thoughts make it”: Meditations, IV, 3
- Paraphrase“The best revenge is to be unlike him”: Meditations, VI, 6
- Attested“Death hangs over thee”: attested, Meditations IV, 17
- Paraphrase“Very little is needed to make a happy life”: half attested
- Not found“What a precious privilege it is to be alive”: not found
- Paraphrase“Waste no more time arguing… Be one”: Meditations, X, 16
- Misattributed“Death smiles at us all”: Gladiator, not Marcus Aurelius
The 166 passages of this work are free in Stoïque, each with its reference, on the Home Screen and the Lock Screen.