金句与出处

清晨伊始，就对自己说：我将遇见爱管闲事的人、忘恩负义的人、傲慢的人、欺诈的人、嫉妒的人、孤僻的人。

Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good th…

全书最著名的开场。不是教人愤世，而是教人预知——把「会遇到难相处的人」当作每日既定事实，情绪就不再被它突袭。

你看，人只要把握住这少数几件事，就能过一种安宁流淌、宛如诸神存在的生活。

Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice, and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief if thou dos…

奥勒留列的「少数几件事」：正直、简朴、按理性行动、每个行动当作最后一个来做。

由于不观察他人心中所想，人很少显得不幸；而那些不观察自己内心活动的人，则必然不幸。

Through not observing what is in the mind of another a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.

盯住别人的心思会让人不快乐；不盯自己的心思则必然不快乐——注意力的去向决定幸福。

没有人失去的是别的生命，只是他现在所过的这一个。……现在是人唯一可能被剥夺的东西。

Though thou shouldest be going to live three thousand years, and as many times ten thousand years, still remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses. The longest and shortest are thus…

关于失去与时间最通透的一段：过去与未来都不属于你，因此谈不上失去；你唯一拥有的「现在」，恰恰是唯一可能失去的。

生命是战争、是异乡的寄居；身后的名声是遗忘。那么，什么能护送一个人走完此生？只有一样东西：哲学。

Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in…

卷二收尾。这里的「哲学」不是学问，是一种把内心守护得不受伤的生活方式。

他既能戒绝、也能享用那些多数人因软弱而既戒绝不了、又无法不过度享用的事物。

In my father I observed mildness of temper, and unchangeable resolution in the things which he had determined after due deliberation; and no vain-glory in those things which men call honors; and a love of labor and perseverance; and a readiness to listen to th…

写给他的养父安东尼·庇护——谈「有力量的自律」：不是远离享受，而是能拿起、也能放下。

你做错了，你做错了，我的灵魂；你不再有机会敬重自己了。

Do wrong to thyself, do wrong to thyself, my soul; but thou wilt no longer have the opportunity of honoring thyself. Every man’s life is sufficient. But thine is nearly finished, though thy soul reverences not itself, but places thy felicity in the souls of ot…

罕见的自我呵斥。奥勒留不许自己再拿「以后」搪塞——对自己喊话，就是这位皇帝的日常功课。

带着快乐的过错，比带着痛苦的过错更应受谴责。

Theophrastus, in his comparison of bad acts—such a comparison as one would make in accordance with the common notions of mankind—says, like a true philosopher, that the offences which are committed through desire are more blamable than those which are committe…

引自哲学家泰奥弗拉斯托斯。发怒至少伴随痛苦，放纵却是被快乐直接牵走——对自己诚实一点，哪一种更难戒？