Inner Citadel
@innercitadel.bsky.social
People try to get away from it all — to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within.
Mostly excerpts from Meditations by Aurelius. (Hayes)
Mostly excerpts from Meditations by Aurelius. (Hayes)
To experience sensations: even grazing beasts do that. To let your desires control you: even wild animals do that—and rutting humans, and tyrants (from Phalaris to Nero…).
Meditations 3.16
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Meditations 3.16
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April 15, 2025 at 1:42 PM
To experience sensations: even grazing beasts do that. To let your desires control you: even wild animals do that—and rutting humans, and tyrants (from Phalaris to Nero…).
Meditations 3.16
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Meditations 3.16
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They don’t realize how much is included in stealing, sowing, buying, resting, seeing to business (not with the eyes, but another kind of sight).
Meditations 3.15
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Meditations 3.15
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April 11, 2025 at 10:56 PM
They don’t realize how much is included in stealing, sowing, buying, resting, seeing to business (not with the eyes, but another kind of sight).
Meditations 3.15
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Meditations 3.15
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Stop drifting. You’re not going to re-read your Brief Comments, your Deeds of the Ancient Greeks & Romans, the commonplace books you saved for your old age. Sprint for the finish. Write off your hopes, & if your well-being matters to you, be your own savior while you can.
Meditations 3.14
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Meditations 3.14
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April 10, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Stop drifting. You’re not going to re-read your Brief Comments, your Deeds of the Ancient Greeks & Romans, the commonplace books you saved for your old age. Sprint for the finish. Write off your hopes, & if your well-being matters to you, be your own savior while you can.
Meditations 3.14
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Meditations 3.14
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In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth.
Meditations 3.13
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Meditations 3.13
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April 9, 2025 at 12:26 AM
In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth.
Meditations 3.13
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Meditations 3.13
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Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth.
Meditations 3.13
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Meditations 3.13
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April 8, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth.
Meditations 3.13
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Meditations 3.13
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[on how to live a happy life]
[1/2] If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment—
Meditations 2.12
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[1/2] If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment—
Meditations 2.12
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April 6, 2025 at 3:33 AM
[on how to live a happy life]
[1/2] If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment—
Meditations 2.12
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[1/2] If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment—
Meditations 2.12
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[Aurelius on how to examine moments that demand your attention]
1/3
So in each case you need to say: “This is due to God.” Or: “This is due to the interweavings and intertwinings of fate, to coincidence or chance.” …
Meditations 3.11
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1/3
So in each case you need to say: “This is due to God.” Or: “This is due to the interweavings and intertwinings of fate, to coincidence or chance.” …
Meditations 3.11
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April 3, 2025 at 11:16 PM
[Aurelius on how to examine moments that demand your attention]
1/3
So in each case you need to say: “This is due to God.” Or: “This is due to the interweavings and intertwinings of fate, to coincidence or chance.” …
Meditations 3.11
#Stoic
1/3
So in each case you need to say: “This is due to God.” Or: “This is due to the interweavings and intertwinings of fate, to coincidence or chance.” …
Meditations 3.11
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What is it—this thing that now forces itself on my notice? What is it made up of? How long was it designed to last? And what qualities do I need to bring to bear on it—tranquillity, courage, honesty, trustworthiness, straightforwardness, independence or what?
Meditations 3.11
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Meditations 3.11
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April 3, 2025 at 4:15 AM
What is it—this thing that now forces itself on my notice? What is it made up of? How long was it designed to last? And what qualities do I need to bring to bear on it—tranquillity, courage, honesty, trustworthiness, straightforwardness, independence or what?
Meditations 3.11
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Meditations 3.11
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Nothing is so conducive to spiritual growth as this capacity for logical and accurate analysis of everything that happens to us. To look at it in such a way that we understand what need it fulfills, and in what kind of world.
Meditations 3.11
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Meditations 3.11
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April 1, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Nothing is so conducive to spiritual growth as this capacity for logical and accurate analysis of everything that happens to us. To look at it in such a way that we understand what need it fulfills, and in what kind of world.
Meditations 3.11
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Meditations 3.11
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…define whatever it is we perceive—to trace its outline—so we can see what it really is: its substance. Stripped bare. As a whole. Unmodified. And to call it by its name—the thing itself and its components, to which it will eventually return.
Meditations 3.11
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Meditations 3.11
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March 31, 2025 at 11:53 PM
…define whatever it is we perceive—to trace its outline—so we can see what it really is: its substance. Stripped bare. As a whole. Unmodified. And to call it by its name—the thing itself and its components, to which it will eventually return.
Meditations 3.11
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Meditations 3.11
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The span we live is small—small as the corner of the earth in which we live it. Small as even the greatest renown, passed from mouth to mouth by short-lived stick figures, ignorant alike of themselves and those long dead.
Meditations 3.10
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Meditations 3.10
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March 29, 2025 at 8:07 AM
The span we live is small—small as the corner of the earth in which we live it. Small as even the greatest renown, passed from mouth to mouth by short-lived stick figures, ignorant alike of themselves and those long dead.
Meditations 3.10
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Meditations 3.10
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Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.
Meditations 3.10
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Meditations 3.10
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March 28, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.
Meditations 3.10
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Meditations 3.10
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Your ability to control your thoughts….It’s what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submission to the divine.
Meditations 3.9
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Meditations 3.9
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March 27, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Your ability to control your thoughts….It’s what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submission to the divine.
Meditations 3.9
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Meditations 3.9
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Your ability to control your thoughts—treat it with respect. It’s all that protects your mind from false perceptions—false to your nature, and that of all rational beings.
Meditations 3.9
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Meditations 3.9
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March 25, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Your ability to control your thoughts—treat it with respect. It’s all that protects your mind from false perceptions—false to your nature, and that of all rational beings.
Meditations 3.9
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Meditations 3.9
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The mind of one set straight and purified: no pus, no dirt, no scabs. And not a life cut short by death, like an actor who stops before the play is done, the plot wound up.
Meditations 3.8
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Meditations 3.8
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March 23, 2025 at 7:52 PM
The mind of one set straight and purified: no pus, no dirt, no scabs. And not a life cut short by death, like an actor who stops before the play is done, the plot wound up.
Meditations 3.8
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Meditations 3.8
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And concentrate on this, your whole life long: for your mind to be in the right state—the state a rational, civic mind should be in.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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March 21, 2025 at 2:33 PM
And concentrate on this, your whole life long: for your mind to be in the right state—the state a rational, civic mind should be in.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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If it’s time for you to go, leave willingly—as you would to accomplish anything that can be done with grace and honor.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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March 20, 2025 at 10:44 PM
If it’s time for you to go, leave willingly—as you would to accomplish anything that can be done with grace and honor.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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[If you can privilege your own mind]…You won’t need solitude—or a cast of thousands, either. Above all, you’ll be free of fear and desire. And how long your body will contain the soul that inhabits it will cause you not a moment’s worry.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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March 19, 2025 at 1:13 PM
[If you can privilege your own mind]…You won’t need solitude—or a cast of thousands, either. Above all, you’ll be free of fear and desire. And how long your body will contain the soul that inhabits it will cause you not a moment’s worry.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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If you can privilege your own mind, your guiding spirit and your reverence for its powers, that should keep you clear of dramatics, of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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March 19, 2025 at 12:44 AM
If you can privilege your own mind, your guiding spirit and your reverence for its powers, that should keep you clear of dramatics, of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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Never regard something as doing you good if it makes you betray a trust, or lose your sense of shame, or makes you show hatred, suspicion, ill will, or hypocrisy, or a desire for things best done behind closed doors.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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March 17, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Never regard something as doing you good if it makes you betray a trust, or lose your sense of shame, or makes you show hatred, suspicion, ill will, or hypocrisy, or a desire for things best done behind closed doors.
Meditations 3.7
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Meditations 3.7
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[If you find anything better than justice, honesty, self-control, courage — embrace it without reservations.]
So make your choice straightforwardly, once and for all, and stick to it. Choose what’s best.
Meditations 3.6
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So make your choice straightforwardly, once and for all, and stick to it. Choose what’s best.
Meditations 3.6
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March 16, 2025 at 1:12 PM
[If you find anything better than justice, honesty, self-control, courage — embrace it without reservations.]
So make your choice straightforwardly, once and for all, and stick to it. Choose what’s best.
Meditations 3.6
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So make your choice straightforwardly, once and for all, and stick to it. Choose what’s best.
Meditations 3.6
#Stoic
It would be wrong for anything to stand between you & attaining goodness—as a rational being & citizen. Anything at all: the applause of the crowd, high office, wealth, or self-indulgence. All of them might seem to be compatible…. But suddenly they control us & sweep us away.
Meditations 3.6
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Meditations 3.6
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March 16, 2025 at 2:59 AM
It would be wrong for anything to stand between you & attaining goodness—as a rational being & citizen. Anything at all: the applause of the crowd, high office, wealth, or self-indulgence. All of them might seem to be compatible…. But suddenly they control us & sweep us away.
Meditations 3.6
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Meditations 3.6
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….don’t make room for…anything that might lead you astray, tempt you off the road, and leave you unable to devote yourself completely to achieving the goodness that is uniquely yours.
Meditations 3.6
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Meditations 3.6
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March 15, 2025 at 2:25 AM
….don’t make room for…anything that might lead you astray, tempt you off the road, and leave you unable to devote yourself completely to achieving the goodness that is uniquely yours.
Meditations 3.6
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Meditations 3.6
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