Marcus Aurelius (121-180)

[Nicholas Weeks]

Do your eyes expect a reward for seeing, or your feet for walking? That is what they were made for. By doing what they were designed to do, they are performing their function. Whereas humans were made to help others. And when we do help others we are doing what we were designed for. We perform our function.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, end of book nine

 

[medividedbyyou]

I need to be more conscientious in this regard. Thanks, Marcus!

 

[RJM]

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor and followed the Stoic philosophy

 

[Nicholas Weeks]

From the Preface in Hammond's translation:

The range, diversity, and honesty of Marcus' reflections on human life and death in the perspective of eternity - doubt and despair, conviction and exaltation all equally intense - have enduring power to challenge, encourage, or console. And there is the constant interest of the personal preoccupations, problems, and prejudices which give sharp life to Marcus' writing. All this is informed by a passionate moral commitment, the philosophical conviction of the unity of all things, and a firm belief in the interfusion of the human and the divine ('The gods are with us and share our lives' [6.44]; 'every man's mind is god' [12.26]).

 

[RJM]

It's good enough for me that PG Wodehouse's Jeeves liked to brush-up on Marcus Aurelius when he wasn't busy cleaning up after Bertie Worster, lol

 

[Nicholas Weeks]

Marcus' Meditations has been translated many times. Here is a 2002 version by Hays:

https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/items/meditation-GeorgeHays/meditations-GeorgeHays.pdf

From Book 9:

1. Injustice is a kind of blasphemy. Nature designed rational beings for each other’s sake: to help—not harm—one another, as they deserve. To transgress its will, then, is to blaspheme against the oldest of the gods.
And to lie is to blaspheme against it too. Because “nature” means the nature of that which is. And that which is and that which is the case are closely linked, so that nature is synonymous with Truth—the source of all true things. To lie deliberately is to blaspheme—the liar commits deceit, and thus injustice. And likewise to lie without realizing it. Because the involuntary liar disrupts the harmony of nature— its order. He is in conflict with the way the world is structured. As anyone is who deviates toward what is opposed to the truth—even against his will. Nature gave him the resources to distinguish between true and false. And he neglected them, and now can’t tell the difference.