Marcus Aurelius · Meditations

Book IV, annotated

The public-domain text with our notes, cross-linked to every essay that discusses the passage.

The text · trans. Long, 1862 · public domain

The text, section by section.

III

Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. …

Opening of the section. The full text is longer.

Our note

The most anthologised passage in the book, and the one most often read as an endorsement of solitude. It is the opposite: an argument that the retreat you keep planning is a way of postponing the work.

Discussed in Marcus Aurelius never meant for you to read this

VII

Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, "I have been harmed." Take away the complaint, "I have been harmed," and the harm is taken away.

Our note

The discipline of assent in three clauses. Whether the move survives an actual injury is the argument the objections series keeps having.

Discussed in The discipline of assent, without the jargon

XVII

Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

Our note

Marcus's other memento mori, and the one readers usually believe they are quoting when they are quoting II.11. That one governs what you do, say, and think. This one only sets the deadline.

Reading 3 of 17 sections. The remainder is being marked up.

Compare translations · Meditations II.11

One passage, three translators, and what each gave up.

Hays · 2002

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

Plainest English of the three. Loses the imperative grammar of the Greek but gains the shock of the first line.

Long · 1862 · public domain

“Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.”

The only one of the three that loses a verb. Doing, saying, and thinking become acts and thoughts, and the archaism reads as ceremony where the original is blunt.

Hard · 2011

“You could depart from life this very moment: let that govern what you do and say and think.”

The compromise. Keeps the governing verb and modern syntax; slightly less memorable than Hays.

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