Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
Meditations, Book VII
18 passages of this book in Stoïque, each with its reference.
Book VII is the longest of the twelve, seventy-five chapters, and the one with the most extracts from other writers. Between chapters 35 and 51 most of the text is copied: Plato on the man who takes a view of all time and of all substance, Antisthenes, ‘It is royal to do good and to be abused’ (VII, 36), lines that Long’s footnotes trace to Euripides, Socrates in the Apology on staying at one’s post whatever the hazard (VII, 44–46). The book also has its short formulas: ‘Be thou erect, or be made erect’ (VII, 12); whatever any one does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color (Meditations, VII, 15); ‘Near is thy forgetfulness of all things; and near the forgetfulness of thee by all’ (Meditations, VII, 21).
Elsewhere: nothing can take place without change, and the bath itself needs the wood to change (VII, 18); how many a Chrysippus, a Socrates, an Epictetus time has swallowed up (VII, 19); ‘Retire into thyself’ (VII, 28); the art of life more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s (VII, 61); the fountain of good within, which will ever bubble up if one will ever dig (Meditations, VII, 59); the perfection of moral character in passing every day as the last (VII, 69).
Passages of this book in the app
Do not let future things disturb you. You will come to them, if you must, carrying the same reason you now use for the present.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 8
after Long, 1862
Whatever anyone does or says, I must be good — as if gold, or emerald, or purple kept saying: whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 15
after Long, 1862
Soon you will forget all things; soon all will forget you.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 21
after Long, 1862
Think less of what you lack than of what you have. Of the things you have, pick the best, and consider how eagerly you would have sought them had they not been yours. But take care: do not let your pleasure in them accustom you to overvalue them, so that you would be upset to be without them.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 27
after Long, 1862
Love only what happens to you, what is spun with the thread of your destiny. What could suit you better?
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 57
after Long, 1862
Look within. The spring of good is inside, and it will keep rising if you keep digging.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 59
after Long, 1862
How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long been dead.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 6
after Long, 1862
Let there fall externally what will on the parts which can feel the effects of this fall. For those parts which have felt will complain, if they choose. But I, unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am not injured. And it is in my power not to think so.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, VII, 14
after Long, 1862
The book in numbers
- Chapters in Long’s 1862 edition
- 75
- Passages of this book in the app
- 18
- Passages of Marcus Aurelius in the app
- 166
- Editions cited on this page
- George Long, 1862
Chapters of this book in the app
Each reference names the book and the chapter, the same way the app prints it under the passage.
- Meditations, VII, 8
- Meditations, VII, 15
- Meditations, VII, 21
- Meditations, VII, 27
- Meditations, VII, 57
- Meditations, VII, 59
- Meditations, VII, 6
- Meditations, VII, 14
- Meditations, VII, 25
- Meditations, VII, 28
- Meditations, VII, 32
- Meditations, VII, 37
- Meditations, VII, 56
- Meditations, VII, 61
- Meditations, VII, 69
- Meditations, VII, 71
- Meditations, VII, 73
- Meditations, VII, 74
Quotes checked against this book
The 18 passages of Book VII and the 148 other passages by Marcus Aurelius are free in Stoïque, each with its reference, on the Home Screen and the Lock Screen.