Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
Meditations, Book IX
13 passages of this book in Stoïque, each with its reference.
Book IX begins with its longest chapter, a demonstration that whoever acts unjustly, whoever lies, and whoever pursues pleasure as a good and flees pain as an evil, acts impiously against the universal nature (IX, 1). Chapter 3 answers it: ‘Do not despise death, but be well content with it’, since it is one of the things nature wills, like having teeth and beard and gray hairs (Meditations, IX, 3). Then the sentences shorten: ‘He who does wrong does wrong against himself’ (IX, 4); ‘To-day I have got out of all trouble, or rather I have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside, but within and in my opinions’ (Meditations, IX, 13).
The images of the book are of current and of height: the universal cause ‘like a winter torrent’ that carries everything along with it (IX, 29); looking down from above on the countless herds of men and their voyagings in storms and calms (IX, 30); loss as nothing else than change (IX, 35). Chapter 40 argues with prayer, asking why one does not pray for the faculty of not fearing rather than for the removal of what is feared (Meditations, IX, 40), and the last chapter, the longest after the first, deals with the shameless man who must of necessity be in the world (Meditations, IX, 42).
Passages of this book in the app
Do not despise death, but be content with it, since it too is one of the things nature wills.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 3
after Long, 1862
Today I escaped every trouble — or rather, I threw it out: it was never outside me, but within, in my opinions.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 13
after Long, 1862
Turn your thoughts to your own life: as a child, as a youth, as a grown man, in old age. In these too every change was a death. Is that anything to fear?
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 21
after Long, 1862
One man prays: how shall I be rid of this? Pray instead: how shall I stop wanting to be rid of it? Another prays: how shall I not lose my little son? Pray instead: how shall I not be afraid to lose him? Turn your prayers this way, and see what comes.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 40
after Long, 1862
When someone's shameless conduct offends you, ask yourself at once: is it possible for there to be no shameless people in the world? It is not. Then do not demand the impossible. This man too is one of the shameless people who must exist.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 42
after Long, 1862
He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 4
after Long, 1862
He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 5
after Long, 1862
Wipe out imagination; check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power.
— MARCUS AURELIUS · MEDITATIONS, IX, 7
after Long, 1862
The book in numbers
- Chapters in Long’s 1862 edition
- 42
- Passages of this book in the app
- 13
- 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.
The 13 passages of Book IX and the 153 other passages by Marcus Aurelius are free in Stoïque, each with its reference, on the Home Screen and the Lock Screen.