Wednesday Morning Meditation for Stoic Week 2016

"People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills; and
you too are especially inclined to feel this desire. But this is altogether unphilosophical,
when it is possible for you to retreat into yourself at any time you want.
There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than
in his own mind, especially if he has within himself the kind of thoughts that let him dip
into them and so at once gain complete ease of mind; and by ease of mind, I mean
nothing but having one’s own mind in good order. So constantly give yourself this
retreat and renew yourself. You should have to hand concise and fundamental
principles, which will be enough, as soon as you encounter them, to cleanse you from
all distress and send you back without resentment at the activities to which you return."

– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.3.1-3

Tuesday Evening Text for Reflection for Stoic Week 2016

"Try to persuade them; and act even against their will, whenever the principle of justice
leads you to do so. But if someone uses force to resist you, change your approach to
accepting it and not being hurt, and use the setback to express another virtue.
Remember too that your motive was formed with reservation and that you were not
aiming at the impossible. At what then? A motive formed with reservation. But you
have achieved this; what we proposed to ourselves is actually happening."

 – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.50

"De Munere"

     My reading from Brevissima today was the rather cynical couplet titled "De Munere" by the editor (#84), from Michaelis Verinus (c. 1469-c.1487), Disticha:

Quid non argento, quid non corrumpitur auro?

Qui maiora dabit munera, victor erit.

Roughly, in English:

What is not corrupted by silver, by gold?

He who gives the greater gifts, he will be the winner. 

Like I said, rather cynical!

Tuesday Morning Meditation for Stoic Week 2016

"Early in the morning, when you are finding it hard to wake up, hold this thought in your
mind: ‘I am getting up to do the work of a human being. Do I still resent it, if I am
going out to do what I was born for and for which I was brought into the world? Or
was I framed for this, to lie under the bedclothes and keep myself warm?’ ‘But this is
more pleasant’. So were you born for pleasure: in general were you born for feeling or
for affection? Don’t you see the plants, the little sparrows, the ants, the spiders, the
bees doing their own work, and playing their part in making up an ordered world. And
then are you unwilling to do the work of a human being? Won’t you run to do what is
in line with your nature?"

 – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.1

Monday Evening Text for Reflection for Stoic Week 2016

Monday Evening Text for Reflection for Stoic Week 2016:

"Let us go to our sleep with joy and gladness; let us say ‘I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me is finished.’ And if God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts. That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension. When a man has said: ‘I have lived!’, every morning he arises he receives a bonus."

 – Seneca, Letters, 12.9

Monday Morning Meditation for Stoic Week 2016

Monday Morning Meditation for Stoic Week 2016:

"From Maximus [I have learnt the importance of these things]: to be master of oneself and not carried this way and that; to be cheerful under all circumstances, including illness; a character with a harmonious blend of gentleness and dignity; readiness to tackle the task in hand without complaint; the confidence everyone had that whatever he said he meant and whatever he did was not done with bad intent; never to be astonished or panic-stricken, and never to be hurried or to hang back or be at a loss or downcast or cringing or on the other hand angry or suspicious; to be ready to help or forgive, and to be truthful; to give the impression of someone whose character is naturally upright rather than having undergone correction; the fact that no-one could have thought that Maximus looked down on him, or could have presumed to suppose that he was better than Maximus; and to have great personal charm."

 – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.14

"Quae Scis, Non Dicas"

     I try to read a little Latin every day. I try to include a little prose and a little poetry. At the moment, my prose comes from Quintilian, while my Latin consists of couplets from the collection Brevissima collected and edited by Laura Gibbs. Today's Latin couplet is a piece from Anton Moker's (1540-1605) Decalogus Metricus to which Laura Gibbs attached the title "Quae Scis, Non Dicas" -

Quae scis, non semper dicas; dixisse nocebit:

Scire licet, sed non dicere scita licet.

Roughly:

You should not always say what you know; it will harm you to have spoken:

It is permitted to know some things, but it is not permitted to say what you know. 

I really liked this one. The scansion is simple, the Latin is very clear and direct, and it is the type of gnomic wisdom that sounds good both in Latin and in translation.