Aurelius' Meditations: Inspiring Passages with Chinese Translation

 Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill. But I, because I have seen that the nature of good is the right, and of ill the wrong, and that the nature of the man himself who does wrong is akin to my own (not of the same blood and seed, but partaking with me in mind, that is in a portion of divinity), I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. To work against one another therefore is to oppose Nature, and to be vexed with another or to turn away from him is to tend to antagonism. 

(Aurelius Meditations Book II:1)

每日清晨該提醒自己說：我今天將要遇到好管閒事的人，忘恩負義的人，狂妄無禮的人，狡詐的人，嫉妒的人，和孤傲的人。他們之所以如此，乃是因為他們不能分辨善與惡。但是因我已領悟了那美麗的 「善」的性質，那醜陋的「惡」的性質，那和我很接近的惡者本身的性質──他不僅與我在血統上同一根源，而且具有同樣的理性與神聖的本質，所以我既不會受他們任何一個的傷害（因為沒人能把我拖到墮落裡去），亦不會對我的同胞發怒或心裡生恨。我們生來是要合作的，如雙足，雙手，上下眼皮，上下排的牙齒。所以彼此衝突乃是違反自然之道；表示反感和厭惡便是衝突。(奧理略沉思錄 II:1)

Do things from outside break in to distract you? Give yourself a time of quiet to learn some new good thing and cease to wander out of your course.  (Aurelius Meditations Book II:7)

身外的事煩擾你嗎？忙裡偷閒去學習一些好的新事吧，不要再被外物牽惹得團團轉。(奧理略沉思錄 II:7)

But the nature of the Whole would not have winked at these things either out of ignorance or because (though it knew of them) it had not the power to guard against them or to put them right; neither would it have made so vast an error, from want of power or skill, as to permit good and ill to befall indifferently, both good and bad men equally. Now death, and life, good report and evil report, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, these all befall men, good and bad alike, equally, and are themselves neither right nor wrong. They are therefore neither good nor ill. (Aurelius Meditations Book II:11)

整個宇宙絕不會因愚昧而疏忽，或一旦發覺有疏失，無力去防禦或糾正之；亦不會因蠢笨無能而造成重大過失，以至令善與惡的報應毫無差別地同樣落在好人與壞人的頭上。但死亡與生命，尊榮與恥辱，苦痛與快樂，財富與貧窮，的確是無分善惡，可能落在任何人身上。因此這必定是宇宙運作的正常方式，而不是甚麼錯誤。(奧理略沉思錄 II:11)

Even were you about to live three thousand years or thrice ten thousand, nevertheless remember this, that no one loses any other life than this which he is living, nor lives any other than this which he is losing. Thus the longest and the shortest come to the same thing. For the present is equal for all, and what is passing is therefore equal: thus what is being lost is proved to be barely a moment. For a man could lose neither past nor future; how can one rob him of what he has not got? Always remember, then, these two things: one, that all things from everlasting are of the same kind, and are in rotation; and it matters nothing whether it be for a hundred years or for two hundred or for an infinite time that a man shall behold the same spectacle; the other, that the longest-lived and the soonest to die have an equal loss; for it is the present alone of which either will be deprived, since (as we saw) this is all he has and a man does not lose what he has not got. (Aurelius Meditations Book II:14)

縱使你的生命可以延展到三千年，甚至三萬年，要知道一個人只能死一次，也只能活一回。因此，最長的壽命和最短的都是相同的，我們離世所放棄的顯然僅是'一刻'的時光而已。沒有人能失去過去或未來。他如何能被剝奪他根本不擁有的東西呢？所以有兩件事要記住：第一，自亙古以來一切事都是一遍一遍的重複翻演，一個人在一百或二百年間或甚至永恆所看見的必定是同樣的戲碼演來演去。另一件便是，長壽的與夭折的人所失去的是一樣的，因為都只被剝奪了一刻的時間。事實上，人只擁有當下的這一刻，而所沒有的東西當然是無法失去的。(奧理略沉思錄 II:14)

Everything is what you judge it to be. (Aurelius Meditations Book II:15)

要記住，一切均取決於你的態度與看法。(奧理略沉思錄 II:15)

Do not waste the balance of life left to you in thoughts about other persons, when you are not referring to some advantage of your fellows. (Book III:4)

除非你是為大家的益處著想， 不要浪費你的餘生在空想別人的事。(奧理略沉思錄 III:4)

You should stand upright, not be held upright. (Aurelius Meditations III:5)

在道德上該自己站穩，不是被扶助才能站直。(奧理略沉思錄 III:5)

Never value as an advantage to yourself what will force you one day to break your word, to abandon self-respect, to hate, suspect, execrate another, to act a part, to covet anything that calls for walls or coverings to conceal it. (Aurelius Meditations III:7)

如果看出現在的任何事可能日後迫使你言而無信，捨棄自尊，令你懷恨，猜疑或詛咒人，行事虛偽，或引誘你參與見不得人的勾當，切勿以為這樣的事對自己有益。(奧理略沉思錄 III:7)

Therefore throw all else aside, and hold fast only these few things; further calling to mind at the same time that each of us lives only in the present, this brief moment; the rest is either a life that is past, or is in an uncertain future. Little the life each lives, little the corner of the earth he lives in, little even the longest fame hereafter, and even that dependent on a succession of poor mortals, who will very soon be dead, and have not learnt to know themselves, much less the man who was dead long years ago. (Aurelius Meditations III:10)

拋棄一切其他的想法，只把握住這些；要記住，人的生命只存在於目前這片刻，其餘的不是早已過去了，便是在人無法掌握的未來。每個人實在渺小極了，所生存的範圍也僅是地上小小的一隅罷了。即使有垂諸久遠身世之譽也是微不足道的，因為那只是靠一些可憐的凡人輾轉傳述，而他們本身也很快就要逝去。人未必能了解自己，更何況說認識老早以前死去的人。(奧理略沉思錄 III:10)

Nothing is so able to create greatness of mind as the power methodically and truthfully to test each thing that meets one in life, and always to look upon it so as to attend at the same time to the use which this particular thing contributes to a Universe of a certain definite kind, what value it has in reference to the Whole, and what to man. (Aurelius Book III:11)

最能培養高尚胸襟莫過於對人生遭遇的一切作確實而有條理的考究，試圖明白當前的事對整個宇宙有何效用及價值，對人有何價值。(奧理略沉思錄 III:11)

All that your eyes behold will change in a moment and be no more; consider how many changes you have already witnessed, and think continually of that. The Universe is change, life is what our thoughts make it...Get rid of the judgement; you are rid of the ‘I am hurt’; get rid of the ‘I am hurt’, you are rid of the hurt itself. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:3,7)

眼見的世界瞬息萬變，各事趨於消滅；要不斷思索你親眼見到的事物有多少已改變了。「宇宙不停地變化，而人生由我們的思想所創造。」 若能剷除「我心裡受了傷害」的觀念，受傷的感覺立刻也就會消失。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:3,7)

Don’t live as though you were going to live a myriad years. Fate is hanging over your head; while you have life, while you may, become good.

How great a rest from labour he gains who does not look to what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only to what he himself is doing. (Aurelius Book IV: 17, 18)

莫以為你還有一萬年可活; 你的命在須臾了！要趁你還活著，還來得及，好好做人。人不管同胞的言行思想是否正確，只管注意自己的行為，內心會安寧多了!  (奧理略沉思錄 IV:17,18)

Does an emerald become worse than it was, if it be not praised? (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:20)

一塊翡翠因無人讚賞便會失去它的價值嗎？(奧理略沉思錄 IV:20)

Democritus has said: ‘Do few things, if you would enjoy tranquility.’ (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:24)

古希臘哲學家德謨克利特說過，「兼顧的事要少，才能心享寧靜。」(奧理略沉思錄 IV:24)

Love the art which you were taught, set up your rest in this.....making yourself neither despot nor servant to any. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:31)

不論多卑微， 該珍視自己所學習的技藝，安心樂業於其中， 既不盛氣凌人亦不甘為奴僕。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:31)

All is ephemeral, both what remembers and what is remembered. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:35)

一切都是朝生暮死的，人的記憶也非常短暫。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:35)

Constantly think of the Universe as one living creature, embracing one being and one soul; how all is absorbed into the one consciousness of this living creature; how it compasses all things with a single purpose, and how all things work together to cause all that comes to pass, and their wonderful web and texture. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:40)

總要記得宇宙乃一個活物，只有一種本質和精神；一切事物都歸回到這唯一的知覺；一切事物都是發自於這唯一的動機。要思索所有現存的事物是怎樣共同配合來產生我們所經歷的一切，支支的線條是怎樣奇妙地錯綜交織在一起的。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:40)

There is a kind of river of things passing into being, and Time is a violent torrent. For no sooner is each seen, than it has been carried away, and another is being carried by, and that, too, will be carried away. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:43)

時間好比一條河，一條急流，其中變化無窮無盡。我們一見到一件新事，它立刻就被沖走了；看呀，又有一件湧現，又消逝得杳無蹤影! (奧理略沉思錄 IV:43)

Be like the headland on which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and about it the boiling waters sink to sleep. ‘Unlucky am I, because this has befallen me.’ Nay rather: ‘Lucky am I, because, though this befell me, I continue free from sorrow, neither crushed by the present, nor fearing what is to come.’ For such an event might have befallen any man, but not every man would have continued in it free from sorrow. On what grounds then is this ill fortune more than that good fortune? Can what has befallen you prevent your being just, high-minded, temperate, prudent, free from rash judgements, trustful, self-reverent, free, and whatever else by its presence with him enables a man’s nature to secure what is really his? Finally, in every event which leads you to sorrow, remember to use this principle: that this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it like a brave man is good fortune. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:49)

要像一塊岬角上的岩石，任憑海浪不斷地沖擊，仍然卻屹立不搖，四周洶湧的波濤不久便消沉下去了。

　　「啊，我的運氣太糟，竟會遭遇到這樣的事！」不，反而應該這麼說:  我好幸運，因雖然遭遇這事，我內在的人並未傷心欲絕，既未被現狀所粉碎，對將來亦全無恐懼。因為類似的事可能落在任何一個人身上，但並不見得每個人的內在都能不受其所傷害。既然如此, 為何認為那是不幸，而不視為幸事呢？所遭遇的事能迫使你減少一丁點的公正，高尚，自律，明智，謹慎，誠實，謙遜，意志自由，或其他健全人格所不可缺少的美德嗎？將來如有任何情事使你感覺受了傷害，就當憶起以下原則：沒有一樁不幸的事是不能由於勇敢承當而轉成幸事的。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:49)

Run always the short road, and Nature’s road is short. Therefore say and do everything in the soundest way, because a purpose like this delivers a man from troubles and warfare, from every care and superfluity. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:51)

做任何事總要跑最短的道路；最短的路乃自然之道。這條道路把人引入理性和言行健全的境界。能下此決心，便可免除困難和衝突，遠離煩惱和虛浮的行徑。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:51)

To pursue the impossible is madness: but it is impossible for evil men not to do things of this sort. (Aurelius Meditations Book V:17)

心中好高騖遠，追求不切實際的目標是瘋狂的，但惡人行事不可能不如此。(奧理略沉思錄 V:17)

Repeatedly dwell on the swiftness of the passage and departure of things that are and of things that come to be. For substance is like a river in perpetual flux, its activities are in continuous changes, and its causes in myriad varieties, and there is scarce anything which stands still, even what is near at hand; dwell, too, on the infinite gulf of the past and the future, in which all things vanish away. Then how is he not a fool who in all this is puffed up or distracted or takes it hardly, as if he were in some lasting scene, which has troubled him for long?

Call to mind the whole of Substance of which you have a very small portion, and the whole of time whereof a small hair’s breadth has been determined for you, and of the chain of causation whereof you are how small a link. (Aurelius Meditations Book V:23, 24)

要常加思索，一切現存的以及即將要發生的事都瞬息即逝，何等迅速地消失啊! 因為一切都川流不息，千變萬化，起因也受無窮變化所支配，幾乎無固定不變者。在我們出生前有無限的過去，在我們離去之後一切要發生的事也都會被無限的將來所吞沒。 在這種情形之下，一個人若是自鳴得意，或是感到困擾，或是覺得懊惱，好像惱人的事是長期永久的場景一般，這人豈不是愚昧的嗎？

要記住，在整個宇宙中，你不過是佔著微小的一部分；還有宇宙存在的時間，你所分到的只是比一根頭髮還細的一段。在永恆的因果鏈中，你只不過是極其渺小的一環罷了。 (奧理略沉思錄 V:23, 24)

Don’t be carried away by imagination which sees only the surface, but help men as best you may and as they deserve, even though their loss be of something indifferent. Do not, however, imagine the loss to be an injury, for that habit is bad. (Aurelius Meditations Book V:36)

要提防被感官表面印象和自己的想像所迷惑。 反而要盡你所能提供人們應得的協助; 即使他們的損失對你來說是無關緊要的，仍該這樣做。 然而，不要以為損失是一種傷害，因為這心態是不健全的。(奧理略沉思錄 V:36)

Alexander the Great and his stable boy were levelled in death, for they were either taken up into the same life-giving principles of the Universe or were scattered without distinction into atoms. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:24)

馬其頓王亞歷山大大帝和他的小馬夫不分貴賤都被死亡送到了同一境界，不是同歸於宇宙賦予生命的真髓，便是毫無區別地被分散成原子。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:24)

It is absurdly wrong that, in this life where your body does not give in, your spirit should be the first to surrender. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:29)

面對生活的考驗, 肉體若尚未屈服心靈卻先行瓦解，這是一件大憾事。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:29)

Take heed not to be transformed into a 'Caesar', not to be dipped in the purple dye; for it does happen. Keep yourself therefore, simple, good, pure, grave, unaffected, the friend of justice....kind, affectionate, strong for your proper work. Wrestle to continue to be the man Philosophy wished to make you.....Life is brief. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:30)

要當心不要變為一位妄自尊大的'凱撒王'， 也不要沾染那種色彩，因為人人都有這種危險。反而該認真做一個樸實而善良的人，純潔，嚴肅，平易近人，愛好公道，寬厚，仁愛，勇於負責。要努力在健全哲學的薰陶下做人。人生如白駒過隙，飛快地奔向盡頭。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:30)

Whenever you desire to cheer yourself, think upon the merits of those who are alive with you; the energy of one, for instance, the modesty of another, the generosity of a third, of another some other gift. For nothing is so cheering as the images of the virtues shining in the character of contemporaries, and meeting so far as possible in a group. Therefore you should keep them ready to your hand. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:48)

每當你需要一點鼓勵，可以想想同儕們的優點; 例如，一個人做事很積極，一個謙遜有禮，一個慷慨好施，又另一個有其他值得欣賞的特質。 在同時代人的品格中閃耀著的美德要常記在心上，並儘可能找機會聚集在一起，因為沒有甚麼更能振奮人心。因此要盡力與他們保持聯繫。 (奧理略沉思錄 VI:48)

Habituate yourself not to be inattentive to what another has to say and, so far as possible, be in the mind of the speaker. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:53)

該訓練自己細心聆聽別人說話，避免心不在焉; 盡可能要推己及人。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:53)

(A procession’s vain pomp, plays on a stage, flocks, herds, sham fights, a bone thrown to puppies, a crumb into fishponds, toiling and moiling of ants carrying their loads, scurrying of startled mice, marionettes dancing to strings.) Well, then, you must stand up in all this, kindly and not carrying your head proudly; yet understand that every man is worth just so much as the worth of what he has set his heart upon. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:3)

你置身在這環境中，要心平氣和，不可盛氣凌人，也必須知道一個人的價值跟他一心追求的事可以等量齊觀。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:3)

Do not be ashamed to be helped; the task before you is to accomplish what falls to your lot, like a soldier in a storming-party. Suppose you are lame and cannot scale the wall by yourself, yet it can be done with another’s help. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:7)

不要羞於接受援助。你的義務只是做好份內的事，好比一個突擊隊的士兵完成身上的任務一樣。 假如你瘸腿，無法全靠自身之力爬上牆堞，旁人伸手拉你一把豈不是一件美事嗎? (奧理略沉思錄 VII:7)

Let not the future trouble you; for you will come to it, if come you must, bearing with you the same reason which you are using now to meet the present. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:8)

別讓未來令你感到憂慮；即使你所擔心的事無法避開，只要繼續應用目前已有的理智去面對，也能度過。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:8)

Is it change that a man fears? Why, what can have come to be without change, and what is dearer or more familiar to Universal Nature? Can you yourself take your bath, unless the firewood changes? Can you be nourished, unless what you eat changes? Can any other service be accomplished without change? Do you not see that it is precisely your changing which is similar, and similarly necessary to Universal Nature? (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:18)

人通常會害怕生活中的改變，但有甚麼比這種變動對宇宙更要緊呢？除非燃料產生轉變，你怎能把水加熱洗澡呢? 食物在體內不轉化，你能得到需要的營養嗎？ 情況不轉變，人的需要能獲得滿足嗎? 你難道沒有看出，你個人的改變與宇宙自然的變化相似，同樣是必要的嗎？(奧理略沉思錄 VII:18)

When a man offends against you, think at once what conception of good or ill it was which made him offend. And, seeing this, you will pity him, and feel neither surprise nor anger. For you yourself still conceive either the same object as he does to be good, or something else of the same type; you are bound, therefore, to excuse him. If, on the other hand, you no longer conceive things of that kind to be goods or ills, you will the more easily be kind to one whose eye is darkened. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:26)

當一個人冒犯你時，該立即思索他對善惡的甚麼觀點導致他這樣做。 你若能了解別人對你行惡的原因，就能同情、理解他們，而因此避免感到困惑或發怒。 通過思考另一個人為何會以某種方式行事，或許可看出自己對善的看法與他相似而原諒他，或者發現看法不同而憐憫他思想扭曲到會犯如此大的錯誤。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:26)

Do not think of what are absent as though they were now existing, but ponder on the most fortunate of what you have got, and on account of them remind yourself how they would have been missed, if they had not been here. Take heed at the same time not to accustom yourself to overvalue the things you are thus contented to have, so as to be troubled if at any time they are not here. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:27)

別妄想擁有你所沒有的東西。 相反，該常思忖屬於自己的最大福分，並自我提醒要真心珍惜這些。 然而，同時也要注意，不要過度依賴那些美好的物事，否則失去了而造成不必要的苦惱。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:27)

Delve within; within is the fountain of good, and it is always ready to bubble up, if you always delve. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:59)

要向內看。善的泉源是內在的； 如果你肯發掘，它便會不斷地湧上來。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:59)

Perfection of character possesses this: to live each day as if the last, to be neither feverish nor apathetic, and not to act a part. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:69

最理想的性格是這樣的: 每天要過得彷彿是活在世上最後一天似的，不激動，不麻痺，不虛偽。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:69)

When you have done good and another has been its object, why require a third thing besides, like the foolish—to be thought to have done good or to get a return? (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:73)

對人施恩，其人受惠，此外何必再要求甚麼呢? 別像愚昧人那樣，還期望旁人注意你的善舉而加以稱讚或酬報。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:73)

Accept without pride, relinquish without a struggle. (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:33)

受惠而不驕傲，捨棄而不掙扎。(奧理略沉思錄 VIII:33)

Do not allow the imagination of the whole of your life to confuse you, do not dwell upon all the manifold troubles which have come to pass and will come to pass, but ask yourself in regard to every present piece of work: what is there here that can’t be borne and can’t be endured? You will be ashamed to make the confession. Then remind yourself that it is not the future or the past that weighs heavy upon you, but always the present, and that this gradually grows less, if only you isolate it and reprove your understanding.  (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:36)

不要拿人生的過程想像成一個整體來折磨自己； 要避免沉浸在過去各樣臨到過你身上的痛苦，或未來怕要面對的麻煩。 反而該針對目前的個個困難捫心自問：“這裡真的有甚麼是我無法忍受的嗎?” 你大概會羞於承認情況並沒有所想的那麼無望! 然後提醒自己，造成苦惱的不是未來或過去，而是現在的境遇，而你若專心一一排除眼前的困難，生活便能漸漸順遂起來。(奧理略沉思錄 VIII:36)

If you suffer pain because of some external cause, what troubles you is not the thing but your decision about it, and this it is in your power to wipe out at once. But if what pains you is something in your own disposition, who prevents you from correcting your judgement? (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:47)

遭遇外界挫折而感到煩惱時，使你困擾的其實不是事情本身，而是你對那件事的看法與判斷。這判斷你能立刻改變而消滅淨盡。再說, 如果你性格中有令自己苦惱的地方，誰能阻止你將它糾正過來呢? (奧理略沉思錄 VIII:47)

The cucumber is bitter? Put it down. There are brambles in the path? Step to one side. That is enough, without also asking: ‘Why did these things come into the world at all?’ (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:50)

 「黃瓜是苦的嗎?」把它扔掉吧。「路上有荊棘嗎?」轉到一邊走就行。這樣已足夠了，用不著再苦惱地加上一句「世上為什麼竟要有這些令人不愉快的東西呢？」(奧理略沉思錄 VIII:50)

Today I escaped all circumstance, or rather I cast out all circumstance, for it was not outside me, but within, in my judgements. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:13)

我今天脫離了一切煩惱，或該說我主動驅除了一切煩惱; 因為煩惱不是外在的，而是內在的，在我自己的心中。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:13)

All things are in change, and you yourself in continuous alteration and in a sense destruction. So, too, is the Universe as a whole. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:19)

萬事萬物都在變化中，而你本身也正在某種意義上不斷地被銷毀並改變。整個宇宙亦是如此。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:19)

All that your eyes behold will very quickly pass away, and those who saw it passing will themselves also pass away very quickly; and he who dies in extreme age will be made equal in years with the infant who meets an untimely end. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:33)

你眼所看見的一切不久就要消逝，看著那一切消逝的人不久同樣也要消亡；在儕輩中後死的和那夭折的嬰兒在墳墓裡是毫無差別的。 (奧理略沉思錄 IX:33)

Loss is nothing else but change. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:35)

損失與變化，兩者性質完全相同。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:35)

The gods are either powerless or powerful. If then they are powerless, why do you pray? But if they are powerful, why not rather pray them for the gift to fear none of these things, to desire none of them, to sorrow for none of them, rather than that any one of them should be present or absent? That man prays: ‘How may I know that woman’; but you pray: ‘How may I not desire to know her.’ Another prays: ‘How may I get rid of him’; but you pray: ‘How may I not want to be rid of him.’ Another: ‘How may I not lose my little child’; but you pray: ‘How may I not be afraid to lose him.’ Turn your prayers round in this way and see what is the result. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:40)

諸神要麼有力助人，要麼無能為力。 如果他們無力，你祈禱不是枉然的嗎？ 但是，他們若確實有能力，為甚麼請求不可能的事, 而不是祈求他們讓你無所畏懼，無所求，面對甚麼挫折而不感到悲痛呢？ 一個人可能祈禱：“我怎麼接近那位女孩呢?”； 但你該說：“我要如何才能不想認識她?”  另一個祈禱：“我怎麼能擺脫那個討厭的傢伙呢?”； 但你該求：“我要如何才能不想擺脫他?” 還有一個乞求：“我怎麼能避免失去我的小孩子?”； 你卻該改口說：“我要如何才能無懼失去他?” 你這樣將所求的反過來，看看結果如何。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:40)

Epicurus says: ‘In illness my conversation was not about the sufferings of my body, nor used I’, he says, ‘to talk to my visitors about such matters, but I continued to debate leading principles of science.  (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:41)

聽聽哲學家伊比鳩魯的怎麼說：「生病的時候，我不說出任何有關身體受苦的話，也不對來探病的人提這些事，只繼續跟他們談論科學最重要的原則。」(奧理略沉思錄 IX:41)

They despise one another, yet they flatter one another; they want to get above one another and yet bow down to one another. (Aurelius Meditations Book XI:14) 

他們互相蔑視，但還要彼此奉承；巴不得勝過別人，卻仍在對方面前匍匐鞠躬。(奧理略沉思錄 XI:14) 

How rotten and crafty is the man who says: ‘I have made up my mind to deal plainly with you.’ What are you about, my friend? This preface is not necessary. The intention will reveal itself, it ought to be graven on the forehead; the tone of voice should give that sound at once; the intention should shine out in the eyes at once. The simple and good man ought to be entirely such. But the affectation of simplicity is like a razor; nothing is uglier than the wolf’s profession of friendship. The good and simple and kind has these qualities in his eyes and they are not hidden. (Aurelius Meditations Book XI:15) 

人若對你說：「我要正直地待你！」那人何等地腐敗，何等地狡詐！這人，企圖到底何在？人根本無需這樣表白。誠意自然應刻在額上，顯在語調和眼神中。純正而良善的人本該如此。但冒充純潔的人好比一把短劍。狼對羊講交情，是天下最可惡之事。反而, 良善和藹的人的眼裡露出的好品德無可隱藏。(奧理略沉思錄 XI:15)