Notes and Annotations

The following are annotated excerpts from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and Letters from a Stoic by Seneca. The original texts appear in blockquotes, with the editor's notes below.

How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquillity. — Meditations, 5.2

Stoicism argues that what we essentially are is defined by our ruling faculty, which takes in information and makes conscious decisions based on this information. In this passage, Marcus emphasizes that it is within the ruling faculty's ability to dismiss negative impressions, controlling our emotions and refraining from reacting emotionally.

Remember that as it is a shame to be surprised if the fig-tree produces figs, so it is to be surprised if the world produces such and such things of which it is productive; and for the physician and the helmsman it is a shame to be surprised, if a man has a fever, or if the wind is unfavorable. — Meditations, 8.15