Plain
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Theophrastus compares different types of wrongdoing. He says the wrongs we do from lust are worse than the wrongs we do from anger. When someone acts in anger, they seem to pull back from reason with a kind of pain. But when someone sins from lust, being overcome by pleasure, they show a weaker and less controlled nature. Theophrastus is right to say that the person who sins with pleasure deserves more blame than the person who sins in pain. The angry person may have been wronged first, and grief pushed them to anger. But the person driven by lust chose that action on their own.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 7 Book 2 · 6 of 20
Knowing Yourself Doing The Right Thing
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Theophrastus, where he compares sin with sin (as after a vulgar sense such things I grant may be compared:) says well and like a philosopher, that those sins are greater which are committed through lust, than those which are committed through anger. For he that is angry seems with a kind of grief and close contraction of himself, to turn away from reason; but he that sins through lust, being overcome by pleasure, doth in his very sin bewray a more impotent, and unmanlike disposition. Well then and like a philosopher doth he say, that he of the two is the more to be condemned, that sins with pleasure, than he that sins with grief. For indeed this latter may seem first to have been wronged, and so in some manner through grief thereof to have been forced to be angry, whereas he who through lust doth commit anything, did of himself merely resolve upon that action.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 7 Book 2 · 6 of 20
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

People who don't pay attention to their own inner state are rarely happy. Those who don't use reason to guide their thoughts and feelings will always be miserable.

Always keep these things in mind: What is the nature of the whole universe? What is my own nature? How do I fit into the bigger picture? What kind of part am I in what kind of whole? Remember that no one can stop you from acting and speaking in ways that match your true nature as part of this universe.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 5 Book 2 · 5 of 20
Knowing Yourself Freedom & Control Human Nature
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

For not observing the state of another man's soul, scarce was ever any man known to be unhappy. Tell whosoever they be that intend not, and guide not by reason and discretion the motions of their own souls, they must of necessity be unhappy.

These things thou must always have in mind: What is the nature of the universe, and what is mine--in particular: This unto that what relation it hath: what kind of part, of what kind of universe it is: And that there is nobody that can hinder thee, but that thou mayest always both do and speak those things which are agreeable to that nature, whereof thou art a part.

Meditations, Book 2, Section 5 Book 2 · 5 of 20
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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