"Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom;
yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom;
seek learning, even by study and also by faith."
Doctrine and Covenants 88:118

"And the gatherer sought to find pleasing words, worthy writings, words of Truth."
Ecclesiastes 12:10



Saturday, September 23, 2017

Marcus Aurelius on the nature of things

"The universe is transformation, life is opinion."

Marcus Aurelius
Meditations

This pithy little summary perhaps needs a little explanation.
There are two worlds Marcus contemplates here -
     1) The outer world of objective reality.  Its nature, as numerous writers ancient and modern have agreed, is ceaseless change.  As far as outer circumstances are concerned, the one thing you can rely upon is that they will change. 
     2) The inner world of subjective experience.  Perhaps "attitude" is a better 21st century translation than "opinion" here.  How we experience life is determined not half so much by our outer circumstances as it is by our attitude towards them.

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