— Meditations, Book 5 (tr. George Long, 1862)
About this quote
हिन्दी में
तो वही गुण दिखाओ जो पूरी तरह तुम्हारे अपने वश में हैं — सच्चाई, गंभीरता, परिश्रम सहने की शक्ति, भोग से विरक्ति, अपने हिस्से और थोड़े में संतोष, परोपकार, स्पष्टवादिता, फ़ालतू के प्रति मोह का अभाव, क्षुद्र बातों से मुक्ति, और उदारमनस्कता।
What it means
Look at how many items on the list are subtractions. Aversion to pleasure, no love of superfluity, freedom from trifling, contentment with few things — roughly half the catalogue names something you stop doing rather than a capacity you have to build up. That is why the list can be begun today: ceasing requires no aptitude, no budget and no opportunity.
The verb is worth pausing on as well. It is show — put these into conduct where they can be seen — not feel them, not aspire to them. And nothing in the list is an outcome. There is no being respected, no being effective, no prevailing; every entry is a way of behaving that is complete at the moment it is performed, and therefore cannot be blocked, delayed or revoked by anybody else.
What it teaches you
Take the two plainest subtractions — no love of superfluity, freedom from trifling — and treat them as a measurement of one ordinary day rather than a lifelong ideal: what did you buy or keep that you have no use for, and how many hours went on matters that will not exist next week. Because these are things stopped rather than things achieved, a failure on them has no external excuse available, which is the uncomfortable point of assembling the list this way.
अर्थ और सीख
इस सूची की आधी बातें कुछ करने की नहीं, कुछ छोड़ने की हैं — फ़ालतू चीज़ों का मोह छोड़ना, छोटी-छोटी बातों में उलझना छोड़ना, थोड़े में संतोष करना। छोड़ने के लिए न प्रतिभा चाहिए, न पैसा, न अवसर, इसलिए यह सूची आज से ही शुरू की जा सकती है। और ध्यान दीजिए, इसमें एक भी ‘परिणाम’ नहीं है — सम्मान, सफलता, जीत कुछ नहीं; हर गुण उसी क्षण पूरा हो जाता है जब आप उसे आचरण में उतारते हैं, और उसे कोई दूसरा रोक नहीं सकता।
Where it comes from
The force of this list lies in its opening condition: every item named is something entirely within your own control. You cannot make yourself clever, well-born or lucky, but sincerity, endurance, contentment with little and freedom from trifling are always available, right now, without permission from anyone. It is an answer to the excuse that one lacks the gifts to be good.
The catalogue is from Book 5 of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, in the 1862 English translation by George Long. Words like “gravity” and “magnanimity” carry their older weight here — seriousness of bearing, and largeness of spirit.
