Marcus Aurelius on being good instead of talking about it. From Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, about 175 AD.
In 176, on his way home from the East, Marcus Aurelius stopped in Athens. He set up paid teachers there for the four great schools of philosophy.
Talk about the good life was in fashion. The historian Cassius Dio says many people pretended to study it. With a philosopher on the throne, they hoped it would make them rich.
In 176 Marcus Aurelius paid teachers for the four schools of philosophy in Athens, at a time when, Dio says, many pretended to study it for profit. In his own notebook he told himself to stop talking about what a good man should be, and be one. His days in court, up to eleven or twelve on a single case, showed what he meant.
Nobody needs your theory of a good person; they need the person. Practical advice: pick one virtue you talk about, and practice it once today without mentioning it.
Well established · checked against 4 sourcesPick one kind thing you often talk about, and do it today, quietly.
“I know how I should treat my family, but I keep falling short. How do I actually live it?”
Stop Debating, Be It and the other 11 ideas of Meditations, a minute at a time.
Download on theApp StoreEvery idea is drawn from the public-domain text, and its names, dates and quotes are checked against the sources listed with it. The paintings are made for Counsel; they show the scene, not a historical record.
