This is going to by my final quote from Marcus Aurelius for now. I realized so many of the quotes I highlighted should have been better curated and pruned. Many of them overlap or just do not contain the best of his work. This final quote, however, contains in it a fantastic distillation of Stoic thought.

Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.

In this quote he answers (for me) the following two questions: What is our purpose?  What’s best in life? According to Aurelius, to help and benefit each other. It’s a clear-eyed recognition that we are not here for ourselves or at least that we are best off helping each other. Modern human society shows us how far human cooperation can take us. Additionally, if we know something that others ought to know, we have a duty to share that knowledge.

Finally, It restates a Stoic constant: Judgement of a thing rather than the actual thing holds the power to illicit a response. Here, it’s delivered in a really useful package. If you’re not going to show someone what they’re doing wrong at least don’t get angry at them.

This might be my favorite quote of his.