Marcus Aurelius and Nicolo Machiavelli

Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations

From Book Five:

Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly shows them that his own soul is satisfied with that

which is assigned to him, and that it does all that the daemon wishes, which Zeus has given to every person as his guardian

and guide, as a portion of himself. And this daemon is

everyone's knowledge and reason.

The best way of avenging yourself is not to become like the

wrongdoer.

When we have meat before us and such food we receive the

impression that this is the dead body of a fish, and this is the dead body of a bird or of a pig; and again, that this Falernian

wine is only a little grape juice, and this purple robe some sheep's wool dyed with the blood of a shell-fish: such then are

these impressions, and they reach the things themselves and penetrate them, and so we see what kind of things they are. Just

in the same way ought we to act all through life, and where there are things which appear most worthy of our approval, we ought

to lay them bare and look at their worthlessness and strip them of all the words by which they are exalted. For outward show is

a wonderful perverter of the reason, and when you are most sure that you are engaged in matters worth your while, it is then that

it cheats you most. . . .

Most of the things which ordinary people admire have to do with objects of the most general kind, those which are held

together by cohesion or natural organization, such as stones,

wood, fig trees, vines, olives. But those which are admired by men who are a little more reasonable have to do with the things

which are held together by a living principle, such as flocks and herds. Those which are admired by men who are still more

enlightened are the things which are held together by a rational soul, not however a universal soul, but rational so far as it is a

soul skilled in some art, or expert in some other way, or simply rational so far as it possesses a number of slaves. But he who

values a rational soul, a universal soul which is fitted for political life, values nothing else except this; and above all

things he keeps his soul in a condition and in activities suitable to reason and social life, and he cooperates in this with those

who are of the same kind as himself.

So keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, free from pretense, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate,

strenuous in performing all proper acts. Strive to be the sort of person which philosophy wishes to make of you. Revere the

gods and help others. Life is short. There is only one fruit of this earthly life: a pious disposition and social acts. Asia, Europe are

corners of the universe; all the sea a drop in the universe; Athos a little clod of the universe: all the present time is a point in

eternity. All things are little, changeable, perishable. All things come from thence, from that universal ruling power either

directly proceeding or by way of sequence. And accordingly the lion's gaping jaws, and that which is poisonous, and every

harmful thing, like thorns, like mud, are after-products of the grand and beautiful. Do not then imagine that they are of another

kind from that which you venerate, but form a just opinion of

the source of all.

He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which

will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of

one form.