Meditations Good versus Evil Quotes

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.