Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 9.7 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.7
Wipe out imagination; check desire; extinguish appetite; keep the ruling faculty in its own power.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.7, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.7
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesDo not let your mind run off with false mental pictures of how things are, hold back your cravings and urges, and keep your reasoning mind under your own control.
Older wording
- “ruling faculty”
- — your reasoning mind
- “imagination”
- — impressions, the mental pictures that seem true at first glance
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- Desire and craving
- Self-discipline and habit
- What is in our control
- Breaking a bad habit
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