Meditations

On the very first page of his book Marcus gratefully declares how of his grandfather he had learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion.

From my mother I have learned to be religious, and bountiful; and to forbear, not only to do, but to intend any evil.

Of him that brought me up, not to be fondly addicted to either of the two great factions of the coursers in the circus.

To Rusticus I am beholding, that I first entered into the conceit that my life wanted some redress and cure.

From Apollonius, true liberty, and unvariable steadfastness, and not to regard anything at all, though never so little, but right and reason.

Of Sextus, mildness and the pattern of a family governed with paternal affection.

These notes are not sermons; they are not even confessions. There is always an air of self-consciousness in confessions; in such revelations there is always a danger of unctuousness or of vulgarity for the best of men.

A happy lot and portion is, good inclinations of the soul, good desires, good actions.

Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion.

That I was not long brought up by the concubine of my father; that I preserved the flower of my youth.