How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter)
Quote #1
But I have seen that the nature of good is what is right, and the nature of evil is what is wrong; And I have reflected that the nature of the offender himself is akin to my own—not a kinship of blood or seed, but a sharing in the same mind, the same fragment of divinity. Therefore I cannot be harmed by any of them, as none will infect me with their wrong. (2.1)
Marcus has a pretty straightforward understanding of good and evil, as we see here. But what comes next is a bit unexpected: he says that the person who does him wrong is not different from himself. Marcus understands that all people are essentially the same in two ways: 1) everyone commits sins or does wrong at some point, and 2) everyone has reason. If Marcus is applying his philosophical principles properly, he will never be angry with a person who does him wrong, for these reasons. Marcus also knows that his mind is properly insulated from the actions of the external world, so he can never be injured by the works of another human.
Quote #2
Yes, death and life, fame and ignominy, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty—all these come to good and bad alike, but they are not in themselves either right or wrong: neither then are they inherent good or evil. (2.11.4)
Marcus's goal in practicing his philosophy is to see things for what they truly are, so that he can value them properly—or not at all—according their natures. It's also important for him to see life with disinterested eyes, never placing value judgments on anything that happens, so that he can keep his mind pure. His waffling about these conditions of life reflects a similar attitude. Seen as objective principles, none of these things holds a particular moral valence.
Quote #3
'All's right that happens in the world.' Examine this saying carefully, and you will find it true. I do not mean 'right' simply in the context of cause and effect, but in the sense of 'just'—as if some adjudicator were assigning dues. (4.10)
Though much of what Marcus says makes sense, this one is a bit more challenging. Marcus is using the term "just" way differently from the way we would use it. In this passage, it means that everything that can happen in the world is meant to happen. Um, how does this dude know this? Because it happens, and the gods would not allow anything inherently harmful to the universe to happen. This doesn't mean that injustice doesn't exist: it just means that the injustice that does exist doesn't destroy things completely. It's also probably part of the grand scheme of things, cooked up by divinity and unknowable to the human mind.
Quote #4
Another does wrong. What is that to me? Let him see to it: he has his own disposition, his own action. I have now what universal nature wishes me to have now, and I do what my own nature wishes me to do now. (5.25)
The perception of wrong or evil disturbs the mind and causes unhappiness. Marcus is all about walling off of the mind from external things so that it doesn't judge anything to be good or bad. This clears the way for him to see the thing or event for what it truly is, unclouded by emotion. Marcus is also further comforted with this principle: mind your own beeswax. He knows that each person has his or her own "directing mind" and therefore has a fair chance of responding with reason. If someone doesn't respond with reason, that's his or her own problem. Marcus has to deal with all the stuff on his own philosophical plate.
Quote #5
All things come from that other world, taking their start from that universal governing reason, or in consequence of it. So even the lion's gaping jaws, poison, every kind of mischief are, like thorns or bogs, consequential products of that which is noble and lovely. (6.36)
There's a strange paradox in Marcus' philosophy: you have to accept the horrors of the world as things emanating from the Whole, which somehow has the welfare of the universe as its sole purpose. So while Christians really do need to be persecuted (hence the "lion's gaping jaws") for the greater good of the Roman community, Marcus sees the chaos of violence as the necessary and grisly byproduct of the maintenance of order and calm.
Quote #6
If you set up as good or evil any of the things beyond your control, it necessarily follows that in the occurrence of that evil or the frustration of that good you blame the gods and hate the men who are the real or suspected causes of that occurrence or that frustration...But if we determine that only what lies in our own power is good or evil, there is no reason left us either to charge a god or to take a hostile stance to man. (6.41)
This is another "thinking makes it so" moment. Marcus is determined that nothing should be out of the control of his mind, since self-sufficiency based on reason is of prime concern for him. It is also important for him to keep tabs on his emotions when his goals are thwarted. Lashing out against the gods is a totally antisocial act, one that would cut him off from the universal Whole that is his spiritual and physical home. That would never do.
Quote #7
When someone does you some wrong, you should consider immediately what judgement of good or evil led him to wrong you. When you see this, you will pity him, and not feel surprise or anger. (7.26)
Marcus says a lot in his Meditations about wrongdoing and the proper response to it. This is, perhaps, the most surprising response. Marcus is all about a kind of empathy with the person who has wronged you. He believes that you have to understand the source of the other person's ignorance and try to remedy it if things are really going to change. So it's all about rehabilitation rather than retaliation and revenge for this emperor.
Quote #8
Whenever you suffer pain, have ready to hand the thought that pain is not a moral evil and does not harm your governing intelligence: pain can do no damage either to its rational or to its social nature. (7.64)
Marcus believes that pain has the ability to enslave a man of reason, since the distress of the body can overpower the mind. More distress is added if man thinks that pain is being inflicted on him for some other reason—as a punishment or as part of a wrong inflicted by someone else. But Marcus's view is that pain has no inherent power to damage. It lies with the person who is experiencing it to cordon it off and keep it from the mind, which can make value judgments about it. If he can keep pain in the body, where it properly belongs, then the mind will be free and pure.
Quote #9
What are these principles? Those of good and evil—the belief that nothing is good for a human being which does not make him just, self-controlled, brave and free: and nothing evil which does not make him the opposite of these. (8.1)
Marcus has a pretty simple definition of his principles and paints his concept of good and evil with a very broad brush. Evil, in essence, doesn't exist by itself. Rather, it is the opposite of that which is good: truth, justice, restraint—all the things that make men free and strong of mind.
Quote #10
In short, the good and honest man should have the same effect as the unwashed—anyone close by as he passes detects the aura, willy-nilly at once. (11.15)
Marcus chooses a strange example to illustrate the transparency that belongs to the truly honest man. And while we may disagree that an honest man is like a stinky one, we take the point. Virtue should never be hidden (or shown off); it should be something we can detect simply by looking at a person.
Quote #11
Wanting the bad man not to do wrong is like wanting the fig-tree not to produce rennet in its figs, babies not to cry, horses not to neigh, or any other inevitable fact of nature. What else can he do with a state of mind like this? So if you are really keen, cure his state. (12.16)
Here's an interesting interpretation of human behavior. Marcus puts the fault on himself for any pain he might experience at the hands of bad people. He should have known it was coming, since a person who is bad cannot possibly be up to good. If he wants to see something better from a person with a bad nature, that person has to be changed. The good thing is that Marcus thinks this is possible—and the responsibility for this type of person's reformation lies in the hands of those who are good.